London’s 02 Arena hosts boxing this weekend, and the main event of the Eddie Hearn and Tom Loeffler co-promotion sees WBC and IBF world champion Gennady Golovkin defending his belt against Kell Brook. Right now, Golovkin is favored in the match paying back at -770, with Brook returning +535 as the underdog. There is no over/under line up as of yet. Much is being made about Brook, whisithe IBF welterweight title, jumping two weight classes for this fight. Brook seems to have his career and destiny intertwined with fellow Brit Amir Khan, and this match is drawing comparisons to Khan’s last fight where he jumped two weight classes to face Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. Khan’s fight ended when Alvarez knoxcked him out cold with one punch at around the midway point of the fight ,and judging by the numbers that the sports books have put up for this one, most people feel this fight will follow that same script. Consider that the books had Alvarez installed as a -550 favorite, with Khan paying back in the vicintiy of +425. Golovkin is being criticized for fighting a smaller man, and he is still looking for a major superfight. tha twill take him to the next tax bracket in terms of pay. Forgotten now is that Golovkin was negotiating with Chris Eubank Jr before opting for Brook when negotiations with the Eubank camp got weird. What Golovkin did by signing to fight in England is tap a new market. For this fight, Triple ‘G’s name recognition alone made the fight a quick sell-out and potential fights down the road with the likes of Eubanks Jr, WBO titleholder Billy Joe Saunders and retired Carl Froch make England very enticing. There are stark differences between Brook and Khan that could come into play in this fight. First of all, Khan is likely a 140 lber when all is said and done, while Brook has been considered a big 147 pounder who has really been abusing himself to make the weight cut for his fights. Brook was not just any welterweight, he is the number one welterweight on the planet, while Khan has not ever been #1 in any weight class. Khan is known as a good technical fighter with fast hands and a glass chin who gets sloppy when hurt. Brook combines a low risk defensive approach with off the charts technical prowess, and no glaring weakness compared to Khan’s narcoleptic tendencies. So the question becomes how does Golovkin compare with Alvarez? We may one day find out frist hand when the two fight, but until then the comparisons are best avoided. One thing is for sure however, Brook is a far better fighter than Khan and based on his style which is highly technical and aims for a mistake free fight, Brook should be considered far more dangerous to Golovkin than Khan ever was to Alvarez.
