Gennady Golovkin Faces Kell Brook Sat

Gennady Golovkin Faces Kell Brook Sat – The 02 Arena in London hosts a huge boxing card this coming Saturday that sees the Gennady Golovkin vs Kell Brook main event air on HBO.

The match is a WBC and IBF middleweight title defense for Golovkin, who is ranked as the #1 middleweight and the #4 pound for pound boxer in the world today by the well-respected Transnational Boxing Rankings Board. Brook, as the current IBF welterweight titleholder, is the #1 ranked 147 pounder by the same TBRB. The good smaller man stepping up to face the good bigger man is the overwhelming storyline in this one.

The little man versus big man story was recently seen in the Saul “Canelo” Alvarez versus Amir Khan middleweight bout that saw Alvarez, the bigger man, dispose of Khan by KO in round 6. Khan came out and showed a good game plan, and he boxed well in the early going and won some rounds. When Alvarez landed, the fight was over as Khan’s glass head took him on a trip to Narnia while Alvarez solemnly grabbed the win. Afterwards, the feeling was “everyone knew it was going to play out that way.”

And that feeling seems to permeate this fight, especially at the sports books where Brook is an even bigger underdog to Golovkin than Khan was to Alvarez. Golovkin is 35-0 with 32 KOs, and he is on a streak that has seen him stop his last 22 opponents. There are no doubts about his power at this weight, and if he is able to execute his game plan he will bludgeon Brook throughout the fight until the smaller man breaks down.

This is, however, a completely different fight than Alvarez and Khan. For one thing, the favored fighter will be fighting on the road in this one. This is not a huge factor, as Golovkin is a veteran of hundreds of amateur fights and as a pro he has fought all over the world. Triple G chose to fight in England at this point in his career because he relishes opening a new market and because at this point his name resonates internationally and he will have people that want to see him fight wherever he goes. So Brook’s home field advantage is mitigated a bit, but do not underestimate the fervent British boxing audience.

Brook is also no Amir Khan. Brook is a far better defensive fighter than Khan, and he does not have the glaring weakness that Khan does (his chin). Brook has also expressed confidence in the weight jump, stating that the drop to 147 pounds was a drain and that he may be better suited to a higher weight class anyway. So what if Brook can steal a few early rounds, and when he gets hit by Golovkin he is able to stay erect and maybe even answer back? Well then we may just have a fight on our hands after all then.