Brook makes epic attempt against GGG but size matters

If ever a national anthem was suited to a fighter it is the Kazakh anthem that booms out before a Gennady Golovkin fight. It conjurs up the image of a column of tanks coming over the hill, guns blazing as they sweep all before them. The fighter known as GGG has a style redolent of said column of tanks on the offensive - merciless, relentless, and unstoppable.

Kell Brook did everything he could to withstand the middlewight champion's assault, but apart from a tremendous second round he spent the fight backpedaling like a man trying but failing to ward off a swarm of angry bees. GGG is every bit as fearsome and machine-like as his astonishing KO percentage suggests, a fighter who combines ferocious intensity with the ability to generate truly frightening torque behind his shots. Even though Brook peppered his opponent with the kind of fast and accurate combinations Golovkin hadn't encountered since he fought Willie Monroe, there was an inevitability about the result from as early as the opening salvoes of the first round, when the bigger man maneuvered Brook onto the ropes and rocked him with a thunderous left hook upstairs. It was probably this punch that fractured Brook's right eye socket, the injury which forced Dominic Ingle to throw in the towel in the second half of the fifth to prevent his fighter taking any more punishment. In doing so, Ingle's courage and compassion outside the ring matched Brook's courage inside, given the chorus of boos that greeted his intervention.

From the moment this fight was announced we knew that Brook's chance of climbing the mountain that lay in front of him would come down to his ability to hurt Golovkin with his shots while being deal with the Kazakh's incoming. Despite GGG's dismissal of Brook's power in his post-fight interviews, the IBF welterweight world champion undoubtedly rocked him with an uppercut in a second round that has to count as one of the most superb comeback rounds ever staged by a fighter given the torrid time Brook endured in the first round, previously described. It even allowed us to believe that, yes, maybe we were about to witness one of the most outstanding achievements in the ring boxing has ever produced, up there with a young Cassius Clay impetuously taking on and defeating Sonny Liston in Miami to shake up the world and claim his first world title in 1964; up there with Sugar Ray Leonard's comeback after three years out of the ring to bamboozle Mavellous Marvin Hagler in 1987; and up there, of course, with Ken Buchanan's epic performance to take the world lightweight title from Panama's Ismael Laguna over fifteen brutal rounds in the crippling heat of Puerto Rico in 1970.

But when it came to Brook's attempt to join this illustrious company the simple but iron logic implicit in the mantra that a good big man will always beat a good smaller man prevailed. Golovkin simply had too much artillery for Brook to cope with, and though immediately after the fight he was clearly upset with Dominic Ingle's decision to end the fight, in time he will surely come round to accepting that his trainer did the right thing at the right time.

Many fans, and not a few commentators, trainers and other fighters, had from the outset dismissed the fight as a mismatch due to the weight difference involved. But any criticism in this regard should not fall on the shoulders of Brook, Golovkin, or their respective teams. It should fall on the shoulders of the so-called elite fighters in and around their respective weight divisions who have steadfastly refused to take on the challenge posed by both men in the ring. It reflects the inherent weakness of the business-side of the sport, especially when compared to MMA, the fact that in too many instances fighters and their managers and promoters have sought to over-protect their assets rather than risk them. There is no shame in losing in the ring, none whatsoever, so why this consistent reluctance to risk defeat for the sake of both the sport and your own reputation as an athlete willing to test yourself against the very best?

That being said, the courage required to stand in front of the steam train that is Gennady 'GGG' Golovkin is of the uncommon kind, which is why the plaudits that have fallen on Kell Brook in both the run-up and aftermath of the fight are entirely justified. He risked all in order to win all and his failure to succeed, given the manner of his performance, has increased rather than diminished his stature. Clearly he will not be fighting at welterweight again, which immediately opens up the tantalising prospect of future fights against the likes of Canelo Alvarez, Miguel Cotto, and Britain's Liam Smith.

As for Golovkin, he says that he wants Billy Joe Saunders' WBO middleweight belt in order to unify the title. There is also the possibility of finally making a fight against Chris Eubank Jr happen. However it has to be said, after watching him take apart a previously undefeated Kell Brook, that neither Saunders nor Eubank Jr will be entitled to feel confident of doing what 36 others have thus far failed to when it comes to put a dent in the Kazakh's armour.

Sheffield's Kell Brook proved against GGG that in boxing courage and skill isn't everything. Size really does matter.

If Brook can hurt GGG he can shock the world

Kell Brook is a man with every right to be walking around with a chip on his shoulder the size of your average mountain. Undefeated in 36 outings as a pro, 25 wins by way of KO, current holder of the IBF welterweight title, yet still he doesn't get the respect this litany of achievement deserves. Even after winning the world title he has been treated with disdain by potential opponents such as Amir Khan, who hasn't had a belt round his waist since 2012, and has failed to land the big name fights and paydays he should have way before now.

Almost as soon as the Golovkin fight was announced by Matchroom's Eddie Hearn in a deft piece of business that succeeded in leaving Chris Eubank Sr looking out of his depth in the business end of the game, an ironclad consensus among most boxing writers, pundits, and former and current fighters, was forged. Brook deserves credit for taking the fight but he doesn't stand a chance against the beast that is Gennady Glolovkin, this consensus has it, a natural middleweight with outrageous power who in 35 fights with 32 KOs has yet to be troubled, much less exposed, by anyone he's shared the ring with. The idea that Kell Brook, a welterweight, can climb the mountain involved in carrying his power with him up two weight divisions, only to then climb the other even higher mountain invovled in defeating the pound for pound unified middleweight champion, a guy who goes through his opponents one after the other like a man in a hurry to be somewhere else, is a non-starter it's so unlikely.

However this is an analysis that begins with the mistaken assumption that boxing is a sport where the difference between victory and defeat is a product of stats rather than ring craft, speed, and movement. Don't believe me? Just cast your mind back to when Leonard came out of retirement to face the Gennady Golovkin of his era, Marvellous Marvin Hagler, in 1987.

Hagler with good reason was clear favourite going into this middleweight clash in Las Vegas. Leonard hadn't fought in three years and this would be only his second bout in five years, having retired in 1982 before returning in 1984 for one fight and then retiring again. Moroeover, in his last fight he'd looked less than impressive against an opponent, Kevin Howard, who was levels below Hagler. Then there was the fact that Sugar Ray had never boxed at middleweight before, only light middleweight and welterweight.

Hagler on the other hand hadn't tasted defeat in 11 years and even though 33 he still appeared unstoppable - tough, aggressive, superfit, hungry and with power in both hands. Nonetheless, Leonard saw weaknesses while ringside at Hagler's fight against John 'The Beast' Mugabe in March 1986, who for much of the fight was able to outbox Hagler.

The key to Leonard being able to win what has gone down as one of the greatest comeback fights in the history of boxing was the way he used Hagler's aggression against him, utilising a gameplan which consisted of making Hagler miss and countering with short bursts of fast combinations and neat footwork to move out of the pocket before his opponent was able to get anything off. In refusing to war with Hagler, Leonard succeeded in frustrating him, to the point where the hitherto undefeated middleweight champion was reduced to following him round the ring like a bull chasing a matador, leaving himself open in the process.

Though Kell Brook cannot lay claim to the mantle of Sugar Ray Leonard (at least not yet), neither can Golovkin claim parity with Hagler given the names on his record. Indeed, Kell Brook is undoubtedly the best and most skilled boxer that GGG has faced, an excellent combination puncher with superb ring awareness and the ability to make adjustments. What he and his trainer, Dominic Ingle, will not make the mistake of doing is wasting energy moving round the ring in order to stay out of range, as Khan did against Canelo. This is especially vital given that Golovkin is frighteningly efficient when it comes to cutting off the ring, redolent of a young Mike Tyson as he stalks his opponents and denies them a moment's respite. Instead Brook, like Leonard, will have to get his shots off and move out of the pocket, utilising angles and constant head movement to deny his opponent the opportunity to land anything clean. Brook certainly wants to avoid finding himself on the ropes, which was the mistake Martin Murray made when he faced GGG. This is a fighter with such freakish power that even aborbing punches to the arms, shoulders and less vulnerable parts of the body is to have the fight bludgeoned out of you. Neither Brook nor Golovkin are known as speed merchants, but both compensate with superb timing and footwork, the ability to measure distance down to the last millimetre. In a fight of this magnitude those millimetres could be the difference between winning and losing.

Another performance worth weighing in favour of Brook's chances is Joe Calzaghe's against Jeff Lacy in 2006. Many expected the Welshman to lose his undefeated record against the American, who possessed considerable size and power, but Calzaghe proceeded to nullify that size and power by constantly changing the angle, throwing fast combinations before stepping off, constantly pivoting to his left to change the angle.

Kell Brook has good reason to feel confident going into this fight. His struggles and travails when it came to making 147 are well known. For a fighter to have that particular battle removed is a massive advantage, both physically and psychologically. It means he can prepare on a full tank, a factor that will tell most in sparring where it counts. Yet for all that the one unanswered question that will determine Brook's ability to shock the world is whether he has the power to hurt Golovkin. If he can do what no other GGG opponent has done in 35 fights and force him back then we're in for one hell of a battle. If not, if like all the others the Kazakh is able to walk through Brook's shots then it will only be a matter of time before he records yet another victory by stoppage.

This one unanswered question is why it would be foolish to predict with any degree of surety that Kell Brook will defeat Gennady Golovkin when they meet at London's O2. If he does it will be an achievement of historic merit, up there with a young 22-year-old Cassius Clay's stunning victory over Sonny Liston in Miami in 1964.