Kell Brook expects Golovkin to lose to Canelo

By Boxing News - 09/13/2017 - Comments

Image: Kell Brook expects Golovkin to lose to Canelo

By Scott Gilfoid: Kell Brook is picking Saul “Canelo” Alvarez to defeat IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin this Saturday night in Las Vegas. Brook had his chance against Golovkin last year, but he quit fighting in the 5th round and he had to be pulled out by his trainer Dominic Ingle before he got seriously hurt.

Brook wasn’t impressed with Golovkin despite suffering a fractured eyes socket from one of his hard punches. Brook thinks Canelo (49-1-1, 34 KOs) has it in him to deal the unbeaten Golovkin (37-0, 33 KOs) his first defeat on Saturday night at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Brook thinks Canelo will box on the outside and use movement and fast combinations to defeat GGG. Brook believes that Canelo will follow his own blueprint in how to defeat Golovkin by using fast combinations and a lot of movement to get away from him before he unloads with his own shots. The only problem with Brook’s vision is Canelo doesn’t fight well on the outside, because of is short reach, and he moves poorly. Canelo has short legs, and he gets around the ring like an older fighter. The odds of Canelo being able to get away from Golovkin are slim and none. Canelo has never been a mover during his career, and with the added weight that he’s put on in bulking up, he’s probably not going to be able to move at all.

“Everyone thought he could walk through everyone and most of the fighters he fought were beaten before they were hit,” said Brook to skysports.com about Golovkin. “You’re only good as your last fight and I just think his days are numbered. He can be hit and he can be out-boxed, he can be beaten and top fighters are going to go in with that mentality. They will beat this guy at middleweight.”

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Oh my, doesn’t Brook sound bitter? Brook needs to get over his loss to Golovkin already. It’s a bad look for Brook to still be holding onto the defeat like this. It’s been a year now. You’d think that Brook would have moved on already. In talking about GGG’s days being numbered, Brook really needs to look in the mirror and realize that HE’S the one whose days are numbered in boxing. Brook has lost his last 2 fights in stoppage losses to Golovkin and Errol Spence Jr., and in both fights, he suffered eye injuries. What are the odds of a fighter suffering broken eye sockets in consecutive fights effecting different eyes. It makes me wonder if Brook can still physically take the rigors of the boxing game. “You’re only as good as your last fight,” Brook says. Well, that tells me that Brook might not be too good at this point, because he lost his last fight before that. With Brook now moving up to 154, I don’t see a future for him in that division. Once Brook gets in a tear up with someone like Jermell Charlo, Erickson Lubin or Jarrett Hurd, I see him getting stopped once again.

As for Brook saying that Golovkin will be beaten by the top middleweights now, I’m wondering who he’s talking about. Golovkin just beat Danny Jacobs, and he’s considered the No.2 fighter in the division. The other top guys are Jermall Charlo and Sergiy Derevyanchenko. I would favor Golovkin over them. Canelo is still the mystery man. We don’t know how good he is, as he’s not been facing good opposition for the last 3 years of his career since his bad experience against Erislandy Lara in 2014. Is Canelo improved from the fighter that was given a gift decision over Lara, or is he the same guy, but only bigger, slower and less capable of fighting a full 3 minutes of every round. We won’t know until Saturday when Canelo gets inside the ring with GGG. But based on how Canelo looked in his fight with Liam Smith last September, I don’t see him beating Golovkin. Heck, the only reason Canelo beat Smith was because the guy got tired on him. They were both tired.

”I am leaning towards Canelo,” said Brook. “I still think I showed a blueprint on how to beat Golovkin. Canelo can win this fight if he sticks to a game plan and boxes. it’s just how Canelo copes with how Golovkin cuts the ring down as well as his big punching power.”

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I hope for Canelo’s sake he doesn’t follow the Brook blueprint for the Golovkin fight, as it would be bad to see him just give up in the 5th and have his corner bail him out with the white towel being thrown into the ring. Some blueprint that is. Brook’s so called blueprint in how to beat Golovkin is batting zero thus far. I wouldn’t take so much credit for a losing blueprint. I can understand Brook bragging about creating a blueprint if he had BEATEN Golovkin, but how in the world do you brag about creating a blueprint when you quit in the 5th round against him? Let’s face it. Brook quit against Golovkin. When a fighter stops throwing punches in a fight, they’ve quit. Brook left his trainer Ingle with no other choice but to throw in the white towel of surrender to save him from GGG in the 5th. If Ingle hadn’t done that, Brook would have either been sent down on the canvas for the 10 count or he would have taken the old knee to get out of the fight like he did against Spence last May.

I don’t know what Canelo’s game plan will be for the Golovkin fight, but I imagine it’ll be the same one that he’s used in his recent fights against Liam Smith and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. In other words, Canelo will stand in front of Golovkin, wait for him to throw a punch, and then look to counter him with uppercuts and hooks. We’ll see a lot of upper body movement from Canelo to avoid head shots, but his midsection will be there to be hit. Golovkin should ignore Canelo’s head and just target his power shots at his midsection. Canelo looked like he was slapping with his shots in the Liam Smith fight when he was pressed real hard by him. Canelo was landing, but the shots had nothing on them. He looked like he was in the panic mode because Smith kept hitting him in the bread basket with punches, and he didn’t like it one bit. One thing I noticed about Canelo is he gets angry when he gets hit. He doesn’t stay unemotional about it. He wants to fire back, and you can tell he’s angry. That hot-heated approach to fighting could get Canelo knocked out on Saturday night if he doesn’t use intelligence against Golovkin. Getting angry against the fodder opposition Canelo has been padding his record with most of his career is one thing, but doing that against Gennady could be a bad thing for him. I’m just saying.

All the punches that were coming from Smith in the first 4 rounds had Canelo in distress mode. He was clearly worried. If not for Smith getting tired and losing it, I think he would have beaten Canelo, who just can’t seem to fight at a fast pace for some reason. I guess it’s because he’s too heavy for a short guy. When you’re short and built like a box, you’re going to have problems fighting at a fast pace against guys that take the fight to you the way Smith was doing against Canelo. Golovkin will probably use the same Smith blueprint in how to tire out Canelo, but he’s not going to gas out like him. Golovkin is quite capable of fighting hard for the full 12 rounds in order to break down his opponents. Canelo’s recent muscle gain is going to hurt his chances of winning the fight. He’s going to get tired at some point in the first 6 rounds due to the bulk that he’s added to his body during this training camp, and it’s going to end badly for him.

I wonder what Brook is going to say if Golovkin knocks out Canelo on Saturday? Does Brook still say that Golovkin’s days are numbered or does he trash Canelo by calling him a bum? I think it’ll be one of those 2. I don’t see Brook giving Golovkin credit for beating Canelo.