Kell Brook shows there's still no answer for Gennady Golovkin in the ring
GGG looked vulnerable in the second round against Kell Brook, but three rounds later, Brook's corner threw in the towel
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4 min read
Gennady Golovkin (36-0-0, 33 KOs) earned his 23rd consecutive knockout victory on Saturday in London as he forced the corner of formerly undefeated welterweight champion Kell Brook (36-1-0, 25 KOs) to throw the towel and stop the fight in the fifth round.
To anyone watching, it was apparent that Golovkin wasn't his normal self. After the fight, he disputed reports that he was battling illness. Whatever the case was, the normally cheery Kazakh star didn't have the bounce to his step and big grin on his face that we've grown accustomed to all fight week. Golovkin pressed the issue early on Brook, who, despite being a welterweight, was the heavier man throughout the buildup to the fight.
Golovkin was active early, letting Brook taste his power, but his normal precision was lacking. He looked sloppy and opened himself up to counter punches from Brook. For most observers, Brook took the second round and was tagging Golovkin with strong lead left uppercuts that appeared to jar the middleweight champion's head back.
Despite eating a number of clean shots from Brook, Golovkin continued to press forward, eventually severely damaging Brook's right eye with his powerful left hand. By the fifth round, Brook, a fantastic champion, was worn down by the vicious body shots that Golovkin went to in the fourth round and provided little more opposition than a sparring partner before his corner threw the towel.
The decision to throw the towel was controversial for all of five minutes before we learned of the broken orbital bone Brook had suffered. The decision to protect a championship-level fighter, punching well above his weight, seemed far wiser at that point.
There are those that believe Brook had Golovkin in trouble, and, compared to previous GGG fights, he was. But upon another view, it's clear that Golovkin was never more than annoyed and bothered by Brook's punches. After the fight, Golovkin said once he tasted Brook's power shots he knew the fight would end sooner than later. Brook is a powerful welterweight, but is not more than a 154-pound fighter despite his ease of reaching 160 pounds, something Brook admitted after the fight.
The guts Brook showed by stepping in the ring with Golovkin are admirable, but this fight only goes to highlight the conundrum of facing Golovkin. Brook's speed was what carried him for four rounds, as Golovkin struggled to land his power punches with the precision and accuracy we're used to seeing from him. Brook's movement also created counter-punching opportunities, which he landed consistently, but Golovkin shook them off in a machine-like manner, continuing to push forward.
Against a smaller fighter, Golovkin, who has a strong chin, will walk through power punches and wear down the opposition with thunderous body shots until the other fighter can be cornered along the ropes for him to tee off, as he did on Brook in the fifth round. Golovkin gave himself a "3 or 4" out of 10 after the fight when asked to rate his performance. His trainer Abel Sanchez agreed. That lackluster showing still ended in a 5th-round TKO in a fight that, even if it continued on, seemed destined for a comprehensive beating.
When at his best, Golovkin stalks his opponent patiently, jabbing with enough power to deter his opponent from getting comfortable and then attacking with power and precision the moment the other fighter offers an opening. Against Brook, Golovkin decided to go into street-fight mode after realizing he wasn't going to be knocked out.
He chased Brook and appeared out of control, and it showed in the quality of contact he was making. However, the terrifying thing is that even without landing the clean shots that usually result in knockdowns, Golovkin broke Brook's orbital bone in three rounds.
Now, it appears that it will be Daniel Jacobs' turn to take on Golovkin after the WBA mandated the bout on Monday. Golovkin wants Billy Joe Saunders to collect his final belt, the WBO title, but Saunders seems content to hold onto his belt and avoid the universally accepted middleweight champ. So, in his quest to keep "all the belts," he will likely make the Jacobs fight happen for later this winter.
Jacobs knocked out former 154-pound titleholder Sergio Mora on Friday and looked excellent in the process, but Golovkin is an entirely different animal. No one has figured out the formula to beating Golovkin yet. Heavy-hitters can't match his technical skill, which often gets overlooked for his thunderous power -- see: Golovkin-Lemieux -- and faster fighters like Brook get overwhelmed by his power and eventually slow down before their fate is sealed.
Unless Jacobs can cook up a combination of speed and power we haven't seen from a middleweight challenger to GGG, their bout will likely end like the last 23 Golovkin bouts. It's going to take someone truly special to dethrone Golovkin at 160 pounds, and until Canelo gets tired of running, it's hard to see anyone that can present a serious challenge.
