By Chris Williams: Kell Brook isn’t phased by the many boxing fans that are raving about the talent of Terence Crawford and giving him no chance of unseating him as the WBO welterweight champion on Saturday.
Even the ESPN commentators are smothering Crawford (36-0, 27 KOs) with compliments and sounding like they don’t view Brook (39-2, 27 KOs) as having a chance.
Crawford’s punch resistance could be a problem for him on Saturday when he gets in with former IBF welterweight champion Brook in their fight on ESPN. These fighters have hurt Terence:
- Viktor Postol
- Yuriorkis Gamboa
- Egidijus Kavaliauskas
Postol and Gamboa were able to hurt Crawford, suggests that he doesn’t have a strong chin.
While Brook has been stopped twice as a pro by Gennadiy Golovkin and Errol Spence Jr, those losses resulted from eye injuries. Brook has never been hurt during his career the way that Crawford has.
In Crawford’s last fight against Kavaliauskas last December, he fell behind early and had to rally in the second half of the contest to win by a ninth-round knockout. That fight burst Crawford’s bubble that he can’t be hit by his opponents, as Kavaliauskas was putting hands on him throughout the contest.
Crawford responds to Brook’s “quit” comment
“He’ll have to live to his word because I’m not the one that ever quit in a fight,” said Crawford in reacting to Brook, saying he’ll quit during this week’s news conference. “I can’t say the same for him, though.”
“Because this is my time, and my team believes that I’m going to take that title away from him,” said Kell Brook to ESPN’s First Take. “I believe he’s not boxed anyone at my level, and we’re fully focused on ripping that title away from Terence Crawford.”
You can’t rule out Crawford quitting on his stool against Brook if he starts taking a bad beating. The way that Crawford’s head ricochets around when he gets hit, he’ll have problems against Brook if he gets hit hard more than 50 times in the fight.
I doubt know that Crawford can take Brook’s power. The uppercut that Brook landed on the chin of Golovkin in 2016 would likely put Crawford to sleep for a while. That shot had knockout written all over it. You’ve got to give GGG a lot of credit
Yeah, Brook quit against Golovkin and Spence, but that was because he suffered a fractured orbital bone. His problems weren’t related to his chin the way Crawford.
The shots that Brook hit GGG and Errol Spence would give Crawford major problems, and that’s the whole thing. The former lightweight Crawford arguably still has a chin of a 135-pounder, and he can’t handle getting hit by a big welterweight like Brook without falling apart.
Brook gave Golovkin and Spence terrific fights
“For the audience not as familiar with your career on this side of the pond, Kell Brook,” said Kellerman. “Kell Brook was an undefeated fighter, who won the title, beat Shawn Porter, an excellent welterweight, more decisively than Errol Spence did, and Keith Thurman did.
“They’re two stars in the division. You were undefeated, you’d made title defenses, you had a decisive win over Porter, you were a rising star, and you chose to move up to fight GGG [Gennadiy Golovkin].
“He’s a middleweight, and you chose to jump up two divisions,” said Kellerman about Brook taking on Golovkin. “You gave him a great fight, but you lost by knockout.
“Then you turn around and get in with Errol Spence, who is another killer around that weight class and one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world.
“Again, a terrific fight, but you come up short. You had a couple of wins since then.
“What have you learned since then that you can take in against another elite type like Terence Crawford so that you can not only give him a good fight but actually come out on top this time?” said Kellerman.
It goes without saying that Brook gave Golovkin and Spence the fight of their lives. Brook created the blueprint to beat Golovkin, which was later sloppily followed by Daniel Jacobs and Saul Canelo Alvarez.
Brook created the equivalent of Ludwig van Beethoven’s 9th symphony with the blueprint he made to beat Golovkin and Spence. If not for Brook’s eye injury, he would have cruised to a victory against GGG.
Now, if you switch Crawford in place of Brook for the Golovkin fight, would he have been able to take all the vicious shots that Kell did? Chris Williams doesn’t think so.
That version of Golovkin would have knocked Crawford out in the second round. Crawford wouldn’t have been able to run around, tapping Golovkin with shots. He’d have gotten trapped at some point and taken out early.
Kell: I created the blueprint in how to beat Golovkin
“Being 28 and thinking, ‘Can I perform at this level against Shawn Porter?’ As the rounds wore on, I realized this is where I belong, and then I become world champion,” said Brook.
“Obviously, when I’m from that defending and looking spectacular, and then nobody wanted to fight me. So I jumped up because that’s what I want to do in this game to fight the best fighters for the fans.
“So I jumped up to fight Golovkin, who nobody wanted to fight, even at his own weight, middleweight, I showed the world the blueprint in how to beat Golovkin.
“I stood with him, but the eye socket went, and it wasn’t my night. And then immediately after, I fought Errol Spence, who wasn’t heard of at the time. The people in boxing knew this guy was special.
“I was winning the fight until the other orbital bone went. It’s one of these things that are taken care of. They call me ‘The Terminator’ because I’ve got two metal plates in, and I feel stronger than ever.
“I feel like fine wine, and I feel like I’m in the best shape ever in my life. I’m 110 percent ready for this mentally and physically.
“You can see the shape I’m in. I can’t wait for this Saturday night to show the world that I’m the special one, and I’m taking that title home with me,” said Kell.
It would have been nice if Brook had fought Golovkin in a rematch a year after their 2016 fight.
Brook likely would have beaten GGG if that fight took place. Golovkin was folding from the pressure that Brook was putting on him, even after he suffered the eye injury. Brook was still dominating until he started seeing double vision.
Kell: Crawford has never fought a fully-fledged welterweight
“I remember when you fought GGG, your right eye got messed up, and you had to have surgery on that,” said Stephen A Smith.
“Then you went up against Errol Spence, and it was your other eye that got hurt. You never looked out of shape, you never looked completely overmatched, but you obviously caught a bad break there, but you were 36-0 when you fought GGG.
“Now you’re going up against Terence Crawford, who is 36-0. He’s something spectacular.
“Why should anybody believe that you’re going to beat that guy because he’s constantly in the discussions as the best pound-for-pound fighter on the planet,” said Smith in really pouring it on with the compliments of Crawford.
“I wouldn’t want it any other way. I’m glad he is a pound-for-pound fighter in the world because when I beat him, I have that title,” said Kell Brook.
“I think he’s never fought a fully-fledged welterweight who is hungry and believes and has been a champion and really believes he’s going to win. I can hit very hard, and I’m very accurate.
“The same as Crawford. I’ve got a good jab, and I’m going to need to be the best I’ve ever been this Saturday night to beat him,” Brook said.
Kell knows what he’s talking about. Crawford has NEVER fought a full-fledged welterweight, and you can say the same thing for when he was at 140. In the time that Crawford was at light-welterweight, he never fought the murderer’s row of 140-pounders:
- Regis Prograis
- Jose Ramirez
- Josh Taylor
- Jose Zepeda
- Mario Barrios
Now, why on earth didn’t Top Rank put Crawford in with at least one of those fighters when he was campaigning at a light-welterweight?
My guess is they were worried that he’d get beaten. So they went the soft route in matching him against these flawed fighters:
- Dierry Jean
- Julius Indongo
- Thomas Dulorme
- Viktor Postol
- Hank Lundy
- John Molina Jr
- Felix Diaz
Brook says he’ll take care of Crawford on Saturday
“What I’ve been doing in training and how I feel coming down to the 147 limits,” said Brook. “I’m a big welterweight before there was a 10-pound rehydration clause [with the IBF].
“With the WBO, when I weigh-in, I don’t need to weigh-in again with the 10-lb limit. So I’ll just come in on fight night and weigh what I weigh.
“So I’m going to be totally focused and utterly focused on Terence Crawford. This is my time. The training has gone absolutely perfect, and it’s bang on.
“And so I’m going to take care of the weight on Friday and take care of Crawford on Saturday,” said Kell.
There’s a very, very good possibility that Brook will take care of Crawford on Saturday and expose him as a product of soft match-making.
You can call Crawford a product of hype or whatever, but he’s what you get when you have a skillful promoter that matches their fighter against flawed opposition for 12 years.
If you take all the guys that Crawford has ever fought before and let Brook fight them, he’d have an unbeaten record. I mean, who on Crawford’s resume would beat Brook?
Don’t tell me that Amir Khan, Yuriorkis Gamboa, Jose Benavidez Jr, or Jeff Horn beat Brook. Those are fodder level welterweights, and it’s disappointing that these are the only guys Crawford has fought at 147.
As I said, Crawford’s promoters at Top Rank have been matching him utter care all these years, making sure they didn’t put him in with someone that could beat him like Brook, Spence, Keith Thurman, Shawn Porter, Danny Garcia…etc.
Kell training for the best Crawford
“You are a big welterweight, and I always thought you were a junior middleweight campaigning at welterweight,” said Kellerman to Brook.
“It’s good to hear that you make the weight more comfortably now. Terence Crawford in his last fight, he’s my #1 pound-for-pound.
“Kavaliauskas, who is a solid fighter, but no one is saying a spectacular world champion kind of fighter. Crawford had to rally in that fight to win by stoppage in the Garden and was hit more than we’ve seen him hit earlier in his career.
“Which Terence Crawford are you preparing for? Are you looking at his last fight and saying, ‘Wait, he’s more hittable now?’
“Is that because of his opponent? Are you preparing for that guy or the kind of slicker boxer that we saw earlier in Crawford’s career?”
“I’d be a fool to be training for that guy. I’m training for the best Terence Crawford,” said Brook. “Don’t get me wrong; he’s an all-around solid fighter with good balance, good power, he can switch hit, but the school that I got brought up where Prince Naseem is from, the unorthodox style I’m used to.
“I’ve done 25 years in this game in the Ingle gym. So I’ve seen the unorthodox style. But we’re preparing for the best Terence Crawford. This is the fight of my life.
“There’s pressure on him, but I’m putting pressure on myself because I want this so bad. I want to show the world that me at 100% is a completely different guy from what you’ve seen before in myself,” said Brook.
It’s good that Brook is training for the best Crawford, but this isn’t going to be the best version for him. Crawford has been fading for a few years now. The signs of the deterioration in Crawford’s game were there for the Amir Khan, Jose Benavidez and Egidijus Kavaliauskas fights.
If you look at those fights and compare them to Crawford’s performances against Viktor Postol, John Molina, and Julius Indongo, you’d see for yourself that the years haven’t been kind to him.
He’s getting old, and the reflexes are starting to go on him. Luckily for Crawford, Top Rank has been matching him against mediocre 147-pounders rather than the elite guys because we likely would have seen him lose as far back as 2018.