On Saturday night, Kell Brook failed in his mission impossible to move up two weight classes and dethrone Middleweight king, Gennady Golovkin. In one of the most audacious moves in recent boxing history, the IBF Welterweight Champion took on arguably the best fighter on the planet in over 5 rounds of pulsating boxing.
I'd gone out on a limb and backed Brook to win. By the end of the second round, however it looked like I was in the corner of the smart money. For Brook had weathered a torrid opening minute to come back strong at the end of the first. In the second round, the man from Sheffield had more than matched Golovkin, he was outboxing him.
Unfortunately during that second round Brook had suffered a broken eye socket that would ultimately put pay to his challenge. Credit to Golovkin. It was his punches that had broken Brook's eye socket.
I was speaking to a friend, this evening who is also a boxing trainer. He told me that accurate punchers like Golovkin often earmark vulnerabilities in their opponents bodies to target. He said he wouldn't have been surprised if Golovkin's trainer Abel Sanchez had spotted a fragility to that part of Brook's face and instructed him to target it. He points out that GGG hit Brook in the exact same spot on more than one occasion ahead if the injury. I'm not too sure about that theory. Hindsight is always twenty-twenty.
Whether by design or freak accident, doesn't matter. Golovkin had inflicted the injury through a legitimate punch. Golovkin also came out in the third round like a man possessed. The Kazakhstani put the pressure on unleashing hell on Brook in the third. Despite holding his own, Brook was beginning to wilt as he visibly showed signs of being hampered by his injured eye.
In the fourth round, Brook's eye was clearly troubling him more than the flush shots he was taking from Golovkin. Either Brook has a granite chin or Golovkin's famed heavy hands aren't as potent as advertised.
By the middle of the fifth round it was clear that Brook had not much to offer offensively as Golovkin rained down punches trying to close the show. Brook went out standing as his corner, mercifully threw in the towel.
Golovkin had won the fight however it was Brook that had captured the publics imaginative and was receiving the acclaim his talent richly deserves.
I'd always seen Brook as Naseem Hamed 2.0. A more disciplined version of his former stable mate, Brook is equally talented, more refined, is slightly tougher and more spiteful. Brook has been one of the most avoided fighters in the welterweight division, on Saturday night the world saw why. The most feared Middleweight on the planet broke his face, yet Brook stayed cool under pressure and kept firing back. Until his corner could watch no more.
It is almost laughable to think that Amir Khan recently said Brook was not in his league. Khan put up a sterling effort against Canelo before he was "OK'd stiff" (as Conor McGregor would say). Brook stood toe-to-toe with the man Canelo choose to relinquish his world title and move division to avoid fighting.
This was Brook's first loss. Khan first loss was a devastating KO defeat to Breidis Prescott. In my view, it's Brook's turn to put Khan on the back burner.
If I was Eddie Hearn, Brook's promoter, I'd look set up Brook vs Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez. That is assuming Canelo beats Liam Smith on the weekend. If Brook cannot get the Canelo fight he should try to fight someone like Miguel Cotto or even Pacquiao.
Brook is right to move to 154. But only for Canelo or Cotto. He should forget 147. He should make the likes of Keith Thurman and Errol Spence come meet him at 154 if they want a money fight.
I hope Brook got paid well for the GGG fight. I hope he only goes into the ring for big money fights from now on. He has earned it.
Looks like special times are ahead for The Special One, Kell Brook and I for one am looking forward to see how it all pans out.
