Gennady Golovkin Vs. Kell Brook: Fight Set For September 10
Gennady Golovkin vs. Kell Brook might not have been the fans’ first choice for Golovkin’s next bout, but it’s still a huge match-up between two of boxing’s best pound-for-pound fighters.
According to ESPN, Golovkin will travel to London, England to take on Brook on September 10. The official announcement of this match ends months of drama and speculation regarding who would be Gennady Golovkin’s next opponent.
“I’m very excited to be fighting in front of the great British boxing fans and promise another ‘big drama show’ against Kell Brook,” Golovkin said.
Kell Brook, a native of England, is ecstatic that Golovkin has agreed to defend his middleweight crown on Brook’s home turf.
“This is the fight and the moment I have been waiting for for some time,” said Brook. “We’ve tried and tried to lure the best to come and fight me and now we’ve got the best of the best, the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world is coming to the U.K.”
Boxing fans across the globe have been pining for a match between Gennady Golovkin and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, considered by many to be the two top fighters in the world. At one time, there was even a reported verbal agreement between the two combatants, per the Inquisitr. The World Boxing Council gave Alvarez a deadline by which he had to have a fight with Golovkin in place, who was the WBC’s mandatory challenger. Rather than meet the deadline and agree to a bout with Golovkin, Alvarez chose to give up the WBC middleweight belt.
Both Gennady Golovkin and Canelo Alvarez have moved on, at least for the time being. Alvarez now has a scheduled bout in September against undefeated Liam Smith in Las Vegas.
Once it appeared that the much-anticipated Golovkin-Alvarez fight was not going to take place anytime soon, Golovkin neared an agreement with middleweight contender Chris Eubank Jr. Brook was also deep in negotiations with another fighter, WBO World Welterweight Champion Jessie Vargas.
Sky Sports has reported that Eubank Jr. began to have second thoughts about facing Golovkin, meanwhile, negotiations between Kell Brook and Jessie Vargas were also breaking down. This created a situation where the Golovkin and Brook camps were both becoming frustrated by their perspective opponents’ hesitation to make a match, thus bringing the two of them together in rather unexpected fashion.
What @GGGBoxing Vs @SpecialKBrook #GGGbrook pic.twitter.com/6kCQGxE9bY
— BOXING CORNER 2??4??/7?? (@boxingcorner247) July 8, 2016
Gennady “GGG” Golovkin currently holds all of the major middleweight titles: WBA, WBC, IBF, and IBO. He has a record of 35-0, with 32 of those victories coming by way of knockout. Golovkin claimed his first middleweight belt in 2010 and has beaten an impressive array of top fighters, including Gabriel Rosado, Matthew Macklin, Daniel Geale, Martin Murray, and, most recently, a knockout victory over highly-regarded David Lemieux. Gennady Golovkin has arguably become the biggest name in the sport of boxing.
Kell Brook, while not at the elite level of Golovkin or Alvarez, is an outstanding fighter in his own right. Brook will carry a 36-0 record (25 knockouts) into his match-up with Golovkin. Brook is the current IBF World Welterweight Champion and has defended that title three times since winning it from Shawn Porter in 2014.
Brook will be moving up in weight to challenge Golovkin, but he seems confident that he will be just as effective at the middleweight (160-pound) limit.
“When this fight got offered to me I accepted within minutes and I can’t wait,” Brook stated. “Everyone knows I’m a huge welterweight and I know I will carry my speed and accuracy and even more power through the weights. This is the ultimate fight, one of the biggest international fights the country has seen in many years. You have seen some huge names run from GGG but I’m running to him. I’m a special fighter and I will show the world on Sept. 10.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCnrS1biq1U&feature=player_detailpage
[Photo by Mark J. Terrill/AP Images]
