By Scott Gilfoid: Kell Brook (36-0, 25 KOs) looked bigger than usual at his recent 30-day weigh-in for his fight against Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (35-0, 32 KOs), but he also appeared to be banged up around his face. I couldn’t help but to notice how both of Brook’s eyes were bruised up from his sparring sessions. Brooked weighed 176 pounds for the 30-day weigh-in.
This is not good. If Brook is getting banged around during sparring sessions from middleweights despite wearing 16oz gloves and head gear, then it makes one wonder will happen when he gets inside the ring with Triple G. I’m just saying.
If Brook is getting marked up by middleweight sparring partners, who don’t have the same king of power, talent and boxing skills as GGG, then surely it’s not going to be a happy night for Brook when he gets inside the ring with the real thing on the night.
Brook and Golovkin will be facing each other in less than one month on September 10 at the O2 Arena in London, England.
Brook, 30, is preparing hard for the fight against Golovkin, and he’s likely got the best sparring partners money can buy, but it’s definitely not good that he’s getting marked up around the face already. If Brook’s sparring partners are doing this, then you can extrapolate from that and deduce that Golovkin’s huge punches are going to do far, far worse than that on September 10.
If Brook’s game plan for the Golovkin fight don’t involve running, holding and a lot of leaning backwards to avoid head shots, then this could be a very short night indeed when the two of them meet up. We’ve already seen Brook use nonstop clinching in his fight against Shawn Porter in 2014 to stall out the fight, but I’m not sure that clinching for three minutes of every round will work against Golovkin.
The old octopus approach to fighting won’t be enough for Brook to avoid taking terrible punishment to the head. Holding all night long can only work if you’ve got the following ingredients working for you: A. referee that allows excessive holding B. a fighter that doesn’t have the knowhow to fight out of a clinch C. a weaker fighter that can’t shuck you off of him to stop your holding tactics.
“The speed is there, but we’re adding more power to it,” said Brook to skysports.com. “I’m more durable because I’m at my natural weight. I’ll be using my feet, my speed and my power in this fight. I’m going to shock the world, baby. I don’t have to worry about the weight. I can concentrate on technique and power and skills in this fight. I’ve got the science behind it, and the punch output. So come fight night, I’ll be peaking and ready to fight,” said Brook.
“This is a perfect weight,” said Golovkin to skysports.com. “I have one month.”
You can argue that Brook’s banged up face from his sparring sessions means that he’s doing the right thing by working hard to get ready for what he’ll be dealing with when he gets inside the ring with Golovkin. However, you can also look at it in realistic terms like I’m doing and seeing it as a sign that Brook is finding it hard dealing with the punches from the middleweight sparring sessions.
You have to remember that Brook has been fighting against welterweights his entire 12-year pro career, and not very good ones at that. Brook’s resume is pockmarked with lesser welterweights with zero power like Jo Jo Dan, Frankie Gavin, Matthew Hatton, Kevin Bizier and Alvarao Robles. Brook had one fight against a welterweight with power in Shawn Porter, but he used nonstop clinching in that fight to keep from getting pummeled by him. Brook arguably should have been penalized multiple times for his holding in the Porter fight. Besides that, Brook has never fought a middleweight or even a junior middleweight in his career. What that means is he’s going to likely be in a world of hurt when he gets inside the ring with Golovkin.