Former world champion Johnny Nelson thinks that Kell Brook (36-0, 25 KOs) should attack IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (35-0, 32 KOs) straightaway in their fight on September 10, because he believes that his best chance of winning the contest is to not fight passively.
Nelson notes that two of Golovkin’s past knockout victims, Matthew Macklin and Martin Murray, were forced onto the back foot, and they were eventually knocked out by the Kazakhstan fighter. Nelson believes that it would have been different if Murray and Macklin had gone straight into the teeth of Golovkin’s offense to return fire rather than run and spoil the way they did.
What Nelson doesn’t seem to understand is that every fighter has a basic nature about them that prevents them from brawling against guys with massive punching power. Those fighters do well against weak, hand-fed opposition, but when they face someone that can take their head off, they tend to spoil by clinching all night long or running from them. I think Brook is that type of fighter. He doesn’t run a lot, but he sure does clinch.
By Nelson asking Brook to go into the teeth of Golovkin’s offense to attack him right off the bat on September 10, he’s asking Brook to not be what he is. In other words, Nelson is asking Brook to change his basic fighting nature. I don’t think he can do that though. Coming events cast their shadows before, and you cannot change these type of things. Brook will likely start holding immediately under withering fire from Golovkin in this fight, and it might take some special tool from the referee to pull Brook off of Golovkin because I do not see him wanting to get brained by the Kazakhstan fighter.
“Trust me, if you think the weight is going to be an issue, it’s not,” said Nelson to Scott TV. “Kell will probably come in heavier than him and look [great], and you’ll think, ‘Wow, where did that come from? I’m surprised that Kell could make welterweight, never mind the middleweight. I think he’s more middleweight than welterweight. That’s number one. Number two, Golovkin is a banger. This man reminds me of Julian Jackson, the way that he can create that power from his shots,” said Nelson.
Julian Jackson had more hand speed than Golovkin, and I think he was a better puncher overall. If you look at the way that Jackson knocked guys out and compare it to the way GGG has been doing it during his career, they look very different.
Jackson knocked guys out with single shots to the head. With Golovkin, he tends to bludgeon his opponents into submission with very hard punches to the head and body. I think Golovkin does more damage to his opponents than Jackson used to, because his opponents stick around a little longer to absorb more shots from Golovkin.
Part of the reason for that is because Golovkin likes to take his time in breaking his opponents down with body and head shots. Jackson didn’t do that. He was always swinging for the fences with every punch. He was totally dangerous up until the end of his career when he began to have eye problems that affected his vision.
Brook being heavier than usual for the Golovkin fight likely won’t help him win this fight, because he’s going to need to take some terrible punishment no matter what weight he comes into the fight. Being heavier doesn’t mean that Brook’s head will be able to take more shots. It just means that Brook will be carrying more weight that he can use if the two of them wrestle around on the inside. Golovkin doesn’t wrestle.
Brook might be able to use his extra size to force Golovkin to clinch with him whether he likes it or not. I would hope that Brook resists the urge to hold all night long, but like I said, I don’t think a fighter can change their basic nature. If they clinch against dangerous fighters for fear of getting hit by them, then they’ll probably always do that for the rest of their careers. Brook doesn’t clinch his over-matched fodder opponents that are fed to him, because he doesn’t need to. Against a big puncher like Golovkin, Brook will likely be holding on for dear life from start to finish in the fight.
“So for Kell, he needs to jump on him, because Kell has the speed. Kell has the movement. Kell will have the freshness,” said Nelson. “So, Kell will have to jump on him straightaway. Do not let this man push you on the back foot. [Matthew] Macklin said it. [Martin] Murray said it. When he pushed them on their back foot, they said it was a no-win situation. If they did the right thing by jumping straight on him, then it makes it even. If I was Kell, I’d jump on him straightaway,” said Nelson.
I think Nelson’s advice for Brook to jump straight on Golovkin right from the start is about the stupidest advice I’ve heard yet. Brook can’t jump on Golovkin, because it would be like running straight at a lion and hoping you get the better of him by being aggressive. The end result of messing around with a big lion is you get torn apart. I think it’s the same thing with Golovkin. If Brook goes right at him, it’s going to be an easy fight for GGG.
Unfortunately for Brook, he doesn’t have a lot of options available to him for this fight. Brook is not a great runner, because he’s got short legs and he moves in a way that suggests that he’s not exactly the lightest on his feet. Golovkin is so incredibly good at cutting off the ring, it won’t matter if Brook does try and move away from him. He’s going to get caught, pounded to the ribs, and then find himself immobile from the painful body shots.
The body shots turn your midsection and legs to rubber in no time. You can’t run even if you want to. I guess the Plan B or Brook at that point will be to revert to form and try to clinch Golovkin all night long to keep from getting pounding. That won’t work either because Golovkin knows how to fight clinchers like Brook by taking a step back when they reach out to hug him. Golovkin then tags them in the head while their arms are reaching for him. Brook is going to look silly if he keeps getting hit with hard head shots each time he attempts to initiate a clinch.
“People say Kell doesn’t have a chance. I give Kell a chance. I don’t say he wins, but he’s got a slim chance,” said Nelson. “If anybody can do it, if you look on paper, Kell is the most qualified to get in with Gennady Golovkin so far. The only thing he has against him is the weight. He’s an unbeaten welterweight champion. This boy is an official world champion. He’s going to put a lot on the line for the fight. So you’ve got to give this man his dues. A fighter can always tell when a fighter is hustling his way through a conversation, saying, ‘Yeah, I’ll win this fight.’ It’s what most think. It’s not what I think. It’s not what the general public thinks, it’s what Kell thinks. If Kell really believes it, belief is everything,” said Nelson.
I disagree with Nelson about Brook being the most qualified of the fighters that can face Golovkin. To me, Brook is just one of the top welterweights, but not even close to being the best in that division. Brook is a good fighter, but I rate him below Keith Thurman, Errol Spence, Tim Bradley, Manny Pacquiao, and Shawn Porter.
I don’t think it matters what Brook believes as far as the Golovkin fight. Brook can believe all he wants that he’s going to beat Golovkin, but he’s going to be facing someone that believes in himself too. If they believe in themselves 100 percent, then logic tells you that the superior fighter wins. I don’t think Brook is the superior fighter of the two.
Self-belief only carries you so far. At some point being foolhardy gets you knocked out. We saw that with Amir Khan in his recent knockout loss to Saul Canelo Alvarez, and I think we’re going to see the same thing with Brook. I mean, Brook can talk about his loss after the fight, saying that he strongly believed that he would win the fight, but it’s not going to mean anything. A fighter has got to know his own limitations.
Brook has got to be smart and think of things he can do to try and survive the full 12 rounds. If he can spoil his way to make it the full 12 rounds, he might be given the decision just based on the fight being staged in his home country. We’ve seen many examples of the home fighters being given wins that they didn’t deserve. I think that’s Brook’s best chance of winning this fight. He’s got to survive to the final bell and hope that the judges liked what they saw of him moving, holding and flicking a jab every once in a while in between those two spoiling tactics.
