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Gennady Golovkin couldn’t book a fight with Canelo Alvarez in September. So, he instead surprised us by doing a “Canelo”.
Doing A Canelo
On Friday, Organizers caught the boxing world surprised when they announced that IBF Welterweight champion Kell Brook would be moving up in weight to challenge Golovkin for his middleweight titles on September 10th at the O2 Arena in London:
Golovkin faces Brook in collosal clash https://t.co/SVhbPzOuzg pic.twitter.com/0rJYCkQilv
— Matchroom Boxing (@MatchroomBoxing) July 8, 2016
In effect, Golovkin will be doing what Canelo did in his Cinco de Mayo weekend bout: fighting an opponent who is moving up two weight classes.
It can be recalled that Alvarez fought former Junior Welterweight champion Amir Khan in an intriguing May 2nd bout. Canelo knocked out Khan brutally in the sixth round of that fight which was supposed to be the prelude to a Canelo-GGG bout this fall. However, negotiations fell off and Alvarez has decided to fight Billy Joe Saunders on September 17th.
Came As A Surprise
The announcement came as a surprise to the boxing community as Golovkin was negotiating a title defense against another Briton, Chris Eubank Jr. It had been reported that Tom Loeffler of K2 Promotions, who represents Golovkin, and Eddie Hearn of Matchroom, who manages Eubank, were close to finalizing a deal when news broke out early Friday.
Similarly, Hearn was negotiating with Top Rank for a welterweight title unification bout between Brook and WBO champion Jessie Vargas. Like the rumored GGG-Eubank deal, Brook-Vargas was said to be in the final stages of negotiations when this sudden twist was revealed.
With the cat out of the bag, Hearn says pitting the two champions is the true big fight that boxing fans deserve. And that was the reason why they had no hesitation in taking this fight.
Champion vs. Champion
As it is now, GGG-Brook will be a battle of the best welterweight versus the best middleweight boxers on the planet.
Both have a combined unbeaten record of 71-0 with 57 total KOs. It will feature the phenomenon in Golovkin who has recorded 22 consecutive KO wins and who owns the best knockout ration in boxing’s middleweight history at 91.4%. Brook traveled to the United States in 2013 to dethrone Shawn Porter and has since defended his title thrice. The Sheffield native has been asking for a big fight for years and how he’s got the biggest bout he could find.
Odds and Prediction
Brook will be fighting at 160 pounds for the first time in his career. But the jump from 147 to 160 and the fact that Golovkin is a KO machine has made Kell Brook a big underdog in this bout. Immediately after the fight was announced, Golovkin opened as a -700 favorite against Brook’s +450. Despite the odds, Hearn says Brook is ready to shock the world.
While both fighters are perfect by record and could win this fight, Vegas probably has ti right: GGG should get the win and stay focused for his showdown with Canelo next year.
