By Chris Williams: Carl Froch feels that Kell Brook is cashing out against Terence Crawford in their fight on November 14th, and he has nothing left after being broken by Gennady Golovkin in 2016.
Former super middleweight champion Froch thinks it was a mistake for Brook (39-2, 27 KOs) to move up from 147 to 160 to challenge world champion Golovkin for his titles in September 2016. Froch says Brook should have never taken the fight with Golovkin, even though it was a great payday for him.
Brook gave it a good go despite suffering a freak eye injury in the second round. In the fifth, Brook was stopped by GGG. Kell’s eye injury was a situation where he got hit by a punch that hit the wrong spot.
It’s not that Golovkin hit him with a huge shot to do the damage. It was an average punch, and nowhere near the kind that the Kakzahstan fighter is capable of throwing. It was just a situation where Brook got hit with the tip of Golovkin’s glove in a spot on his eye that caused the fracture of his orbital bone.
Froch: Brook was broken by Golovkin
“I think it’s probably too late for Kell Brook, unfortunately,” said Carl Froch to Sporting Radio. “I think the loss to Gennady Golovkin and Errol Spence left some damage that he’ll never recover and he’s never recovered from, especially the GGG fight.
GGG was too big and too strong for him. And that’s maybe a fight that you look back in hindsight that maybe he shouldn’t have taken. Him and his training team and the promotional team thought it was the right fight at the right time.
“He was trying to get the Amir Khan fight and then all of a sudden he announced that he was fighting GGG,” Froch said about Brook’s 2016 contest against Golovkin. “I thought it was a stupid decision, to be honest.
“I don’t think that was the right decision by Kell Brook, and it pretty much destroyed his career moving forward because of the injury and because he’s a magnificent talent. I’ve sparred him.
“His speed and his skill set and natural ability is phenomenal. He’s such a great fighter. But you can break something inside a boxer, something you can never get back, and I think Golovkin did that to Brook. It’s such a shame,” said Froch.
Many boxing fans would disagree with Froch that the eye injury that Brook suffered against GGG is what ruined his career. What really hurt former IBF welterweight champion Brook’s career was the inactivity after he chose to move up to 154 in 2018.
After Brook blasting out Sergey Rabchenko in a tune-up fight in 2018 at 154, he never stepped it up after that fight. Brook take another soft fight against Michael Zerafa, and stayed out of the ring for over a year before fighting Mark DeLuca in 2019.
Brook lost motivation for his career after moving up to 154, and he doesn’t seem like his heart was ever in it to fight in that weight class.
Carl gives Brook a chance of beating Terence
“Terence Crawford is a great fight, but Terence Crawford is not messing around. He’s a top fighter,” Froch continued. “I think it’s going to be his last fight, Kell Brook. And I think it’s him cashing out,” said Froch.
“I don’t think crowds or lack of crowds will play a big factor for either fighter,” said Froch of the Crawford vs. Brook bout.
“I think Kell will do what he does best. I’m not totally writing him off, but against someone like Terence Crawford, who is very good and exceptional, Kell Brook was exceptional in his day.
“He’s past his best, and I think this is going to be a test too far. It’s a great fight. I want to watch it, and I love Kell Brook. I want him to pull it off, but I just can’t see it,” said Froch.
Brook has an excellent chance of beating Crawford because he’s finally motivated properly for the first time since his matches against Golovkin and Errol Spence.