Welterweight contender Kell Brook is set to face WBA/IBF/WBC/IBO middleweight champion Gennady "GGG" Golovkin a month from now and at least one trainer said that Brook is going to have a lot of difficulty.
Adam Booth, who is widely known as the former trainer of English boxer and former WBA heavyweight champion David Haye, enumerated four of Golovkin's skills that Brook will have to overcome - ring pressure, power, cutting off the ring, and counterpunching, in an interview with FightHype.
Booth noted that Brook, being two weight classes lower than GGG, "doesn't have the power to trouble Gennady," who has been hit by bigger, stronger fighters throughout his career. As far as using his speed and movement advantage over Golovkin, the renowed trainer does not think it will work either, due to Golovkin's ring-cutting ability. "He cuts the ring off better than anyone," Booth said of the middleweight champion.
So how will Brook be able to beat Golovkin? By meeting the bigger, stronger man head-on and trading blows with him in the center of the ring, according to BoxingNews24. In GGG's fight against Willie Monroe, Jr., there were moments that Monroe seemed to have the upper hand, particularly during the fourth and fifth rounds of that fight, when Golovkin's head snapped back several times due to Monroe's attack. However, it should be noted that Golovkin took those shots and came back to knock Monroe out.
Brook declared that his punching power is more or less equal with the Kazakh fighter's power. He has a good knockout ratio in his wins (25 KOs in 36 wins) but those were mostly against welterweights, so it remains to be seen if his power will carry over to the middleweight division. On the other hand, Golovkin's power is displayed in his record, with all of his wins (35) except three coming by way of knockout.
Booth described GGG as a "counter-punching pressure fighter," which he said is the most difficult fighter to face, due to them forcing the opponent to fight while baiting them into a counterpunch. Despite Brook seemingly having all the odds stacked against him, one thing is sure - anything is possible in the world of boxing.
The full interview of Adam Booth is below.