Gennady Golovkin vs Kell Brook has come in for some criticism since it’s announcement for for it’s perceived lack of competitiveness, but many forget there is precedence for such weight jumps in boxing history.
In the past before there was the super-welterweight (or junior-middleweight to some) division, there was many instances where welterweight fighters jumped up to middleweight to challenge a champion, as Kell Brook will attempt to do this September in the UK.
Granted, the fighters that did this with any bit of success were some all time greats, but I think it’s important to remember that it has been done before.
(When Ray Leonard went from welterweight to middleweight and defeated Marvin Hagler for the WBC, Ring and lineal middleweight titles):
Also, with people comparing the Brook jump to fight GGG with the Amir Khan jump to fight Canelo Alvarez back in May of this year in Vegas, there is a bit of a difference between the two.
Firstly, Khan was nowhere near a fully fledged middleweight, not by a long shot. Neither did he possess the punch resistance that Brook does – who’s toughness is underestimated.
This isn’t in anyway to suggest that I think Brook will beat GGG, but it’s not as crazy a weight jump as many think.
Brook is a huge welterweight who should really be fighting at 154lbs anyway, with stories of him boiling down to the 147lbs as extreme as any weight cutting stories in modern boxing that I have heard.
We wanted to get the opinion of a modern day middleweight fighter to get his view on this whole subject, and we managed to find an undefeated 160lbs contender to give us his expert advice.
Boxing News and Views‘ Gavin O’Connor caught up with Golden Boy Promotions’ Jason Quigley (11-0-9KO) to get his opinion on the Golovkin-Brook fight, to which he said:
“I think it’s great that Brook is taking the jump up to fight Golovkin, it’s taking it back to the great fights from years ago when they moved up and down weights to make their legacy. Brook has nothing to lose in this fight, if he goes past 2-3 rounds people will be impressed so it win-win for him.”
Quigley added:
“Maybe it will click something in Golovkin’s head about moving up and fighting Ward. Everybody knows Golovkin is the best at middleweight but if he wants to be a legend and go into the history books, he needs to take risks and that is moving up in weight. Look at the greats, they all moved up in weights – prime example my boss man Oscar De La Hoya.”
(Image source and credit: Jason Quigley Twitter)
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