It was, in the opinion of many, a quite crazy move from welterweight Kell Brook back in 2016 when he moved up in weight to challenge an unbeaten Gennady Golovkin. Brook gave it a real go yet was badly beaten up, suffering facial injuries and broken bones as he was stopped inside five exciting rounds.
Some fans say Brook, who was also unbeaten at the time, was never the same fighter after being smashed by GGG (going to hospital to have his orbital bone operated on). Yet today, as he plots his latest comeback, Brook says he does not regret taking the lofty challenge; that he is proud of the way he showed the world “the man I am.”
“He was at his peak which shows you the man I am – a welterweight jumping up to middleweight,” Brook told Sky Sports. “Golovkin was the most feared man on the planet at the time but Kell Brook just jumped straight in with him. Do I regret it now? Maybe, with what happened in the fight. But you can’t think like that, at the time. The opportunity was there for me to shock the world and I went for it. It didn’t go my way but I got good credit. I showed a blueprint of how to beat him. I showed everyone he can be beaten. And he has been beaten since. He isn’t the same fighter, I don’t believe.”
But if GGG today is not the force he was back in 2016, that is likely down to the two tough fights he had with Canelo Alvarez, along with his hard fight with Danny Jacobs. Still, some fans do feel Brook, who was able to crack Golovkin with a few shots and back him up, took a little bit out of the former middleweight champ.
We will find out soon, in a few hours, when GGG fights Sergiy Derevyanchenko, how much the 37 year old has left. Maybe. How much will Derevyanchenko be able to test Golovkin, push him, hit him and hurt him? It should prove to be an interesting fight, for a number of reasons.
Golovkin’s peak years have passed him, yet he is still arguably the best middleweight in the world right now (many fans feeling GGG deserved the win after both Canelo battles). Maybe we will get an impressive, reaffirming performance/win from Triple-G. Can Golovkin KO Derevyanchenko?