Like the rest of us, superstar Manny Pacquiao will be paying to see tomorrow night’s big Gennady Golovkin-Kell Brook middleweight clash (well, he’ll be watching it anyway). Currently preparing for his own fight – against WBO welterweight king Jessie Vargas, who was to have fought Brook in a unification clash before the match-up fell through – Pac-Man says he is excited by tomorrow’s fight at The O2, but that he sees a very tough task for Brook.
Pac-Man of course rose through the weight divisions with stunning efficiency, eventually capturing recognised world titles in a record eight weight classes, but even he feels welterweight Brook’s jump up two weights in one move is too great. Speaking with Omnisport, Pacquiao said he sees a “hard” fight for Brook.
“Yes, I’m going to watch that fight,” the 37-year-old all time great said. “I’m excited about that fight. It’s hard and tough for Brook. Triple-G is bigger and Triple-G is stronger, so it’s going to be hard for him. It’s a good fight but it’s so hard for Brook to fight Triple-G.”
And as fans know, Manny Knows. But we have, in the past, seen great fighters move up in weight and dethrone or upset a naturally bigger man – look at Pacquiao’s superb win over Oscar De La Hoya, a fight that, like GGG-Brook,was ridiculed when first announced. And Michael Spinks moved up from 175-pounds to dethrone heavyweight great Larry Holmes, and Pac-Man moved up to his highest career weight of 154 to defeat the beast that was Antonio Margarito……and the list, though short, goes on.
But is Brook a great fighter the way Pacquiao and Spinks were? Is GGG an ageing warrior the way Holmes was, or a weight drained performer the way De La Hoya was? We’ll get our answers soon enough. But in terms of predictions, Vargas gave a specific round when he was asked what will happen tomorrow night.
“I wish him (Brook) all the best,” Vargas said of the man he signed to fight. “Everything happens for a reason and, whether he wins or loses this fight, it’s still a fight (between me and Brook) that can be made in the future. Triple-G by seventh round knockout.”
Carson Jones, who has sparred plenty with GGG and trains regularly with him at Big Bear, pretty much agrees with Vargas:
“I train with GGG and I twice fought Brook. In my non-biased opinion, GGG takes it in five or six rounds,” Jones messaged me today.
It does look like an uphill task for Brook. Fellow Brits Naseem Hamed (who tips Brook to win via 11th-round KO!) and Carl Froch aside, not too many people in the sport are giving the IBF welterweight champ too much of a chance.
But are we all going to witness a huge upset tomorrow night? As good, as powerful and as special as Triple-G is, it cannot be totally ruled out. Can it?
