Promoter Eddie Hearn has pulled off something of a coup in getting Gennady Golovkin to fight in the UK. ‘Triple G’ is rated the world’s best pound-for-pound boxer. Past opponents have described him as ‘scary’ and the LA-based Kazakhstan middleweight has a 35-0 record with 32 of those victories coming via knockouts. The 34-year-old holds world titles from three of the four major sanctioned bodies – so why an earth has Sheffield’s Kell Brook agreed to step up two weight divisions to challenge a man who many experts believe is indestructible?
Brook is the IBF world welterweight champion and is also unbeaten – his record reads 35-0 with 26 stoppages. ‘The Special One’ was due to meet Jesse Vargas in a welterweight unification bout in Sheffield this month but negotiations broke down in July. Golovkin is some substitute but the demand for tickets has been so high that only somewhere like the O2 Arena would have the room to cope.
Brook successfully defended his IBF title against fellow Briton Frankie Gavin at the O2 in May last year and is, no doubt, a classy welterweight. He almost lost his life in a knife attack whilst on holiday in 2014 and has done well to bounce back from that. The 30-year-old has bulked up considerably to take on Golovkin and may even weigh in heavier than his opponent. But boxing history is littered with smaller men who have undertaken similar feeding and exercise frenzies to fight naturally larger opponents. ‘Littered’ being the operative word as most have ended up on the canvas.
Brook grew up in the Newman Road gym of legendary Irishman Brendan Ingle in Sheffield and Ingle, who has been turning out boxing champions since the Sixties, believes he’s glimpsed a vulnerability in Golovkin’s defence. He claims that ‘Triple G’ is starting to slow down, though how he was able to deduce that from the 5m37secs that it took to destroy the previously unbeaten Dominic Wade in April is a mystery.
You’ve got to admire Brook’s courage and, against a lesser fighter, he may well have got away with the step up the divisions – but Golovkin is the complete fighter. He’s powerful, skilful and intelligent and has been taking Brook’s challenge seriously. While the Briton may enjoy a bit of early success, he’ll probably run out of steam in the middle rounds as that unfamiliar extra bulk starts to take its toll and I can see Golovkin ending it around the fifth (9/1 with Coral). The same firm have Golovkin to stop his man in the fourth at 10/1.
Golovkin is only a general 1/6 to win but the win by KO, TKO or Disqualification also looks nailed on at 9/25 on betfair and, if you sign up via our link using the code ZSK200 and place your first bet (min. £10) at odds of at least 1.2 (1/5) within 30 days of opening your account, you will be offered 3 x £/€10 free bets (though exchange bets don’t apply as qualifying bets!)
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