Brook vs. Golovkin: A Detailed Fight Review

[Enlightened-One]

I’ve just re-watched the Golovkin-Brook bout and decided to make some notes about my interpretation of the way things played out.

Warning: This is a lengthy read!

Round One:

For the first 80 seconds of the GGG-Brook fight, the Kazakh fighter punished the Brit, who was was rocked severely, to the point that he desperately had to cling on for dear life.

Golovkin then clearly appeared to intentionally take his foot off the gas, which encouraged Brook to return fire. In my mind, there is no evidence to suggest that GGG needed to take a breather. He simply took a step back, regrouped and stalked his prey.

Golovkin may have taken a few of Brook’s punches, the crowd and the commentators may have become excited, but GGG seemed to be extremely comfortable about the way things were playing out.

To be perfectly honest, the two official judges that awarded the first round to Brook were an absolute disgrace, because they should not have allowed themselves to be unduly influenced by the crowd noise.

Round Two:

During the first minute of the round, Golovkin was stalking Brook again, firing his piston like jab. He remained within fighting range, forcing the Brit to compete at an uncomfortably fast pace in order to stave off the Kazakh’s attacks.

Brook’s nose had already started to bleed at this point, which would have surely hindered his breathing and consequently reduced his stamina levels.

Kell remained busy throughout much this round, remaining on the back-foot whilst throwing token gesture feather-fisted range-finder jabs. Meanwhile, Golovkin patiently stalked his prey, mainly throwing jabs, followed up with a few unorthodox right hands.

Towards the final fifty seconds of the round, Brook landed an excellent left uppercut that appeared to rock back Golovkin’s head, compelling the pro-Brit crowd to emit a thunderous roar, which encouraged the Special One to unload with a few “seemingly” heavy-handed combos.

At this point in time, Golovkin must have realised that he’d lost the round, so using his experience, he made no effort whatsoever to chase a lost cause, choosing instead to allow Brook to bask in his brief moment in of glory, whilst patiently waiting to hear the ringing of the end-of-round bell.

Round Three:

Golovkin seemed determined to regain the winning momentum of the fight… and after only 18 seconds into the round, he connected with a glancing left hook that appeared to deck Brook, which (in my mind) was wrongly deemed a slip by the ref.

For the next twenty seconds or so, there was a real sense of urgency for Kell to get on his bike and keep well away from Golovkin’s advancing charges, suggesting that he was trying to regain his senses.

About a minute into the round, after being on the receiving end of several heavy-handed Golovkin left hooks to the body and the head, Brook appeared to be in some distress and regularly touched his own right cheek, whilst swelling around the eye socket started to appear.

The writing was already on the wall at this point, because the Brit seemed to lose his ambition, by adopting a defensive negative mind-set. However, whilst the tide seemed to be turning GGG’s way, Brook somehow managed to throw a barrage of punches entering the final minute of the round, which forced Golovkin to cover up.

Sadly, it was a case of too little, too late, because the Kazakh fighter had already won the round, regardless the excitement of the patriotic pro-Brook crowd. Unfortunately though, this might have been Brook’s last hurrah, because GGG returned fire, inflicting a troubling amount of punishment in the dying seconds.

Round Four:

Entering the fourth round, Brook’s right eye appeared to be closing, but despite the injury, he stood his ground exchanging punches with Golovkin for the first minute or so.

Nothing eventful occurred during the following two minutes of the round, but it did appear that Golovkin had regained the winning momentum, out-working the Brit, whilst Brook occasionally started clinching.

Round Five:

Excluding the first 80 seconds of the fight, Golovkin appeared to have been going through the motions, despite being deprived of what superficially appeared to be a legitimate knockdown during the early stages of the third round. He seemed to have coasted for much of this contest.

In between the rounds, Dominic Ingle made no mention of Brook’s eye injury and he tried his best to fire-up his exhausted charge.

Meanwhile, GGG appeared to enter this round with renewed vigour, seemingly-determined to close the show. When the ref forced Kell to stop clinching, Golovkin unloaded a barrage of punches on his exhausted victim.

Kell tried his best to cover up and only managed to connect with a few jabs and a right cross in the first 30 seconds of the round, which was clearly insufficient to stave off Golovkin’s endless barrage of hooks to the head and the body.

Forty seconds into the round, in a desperate final act of bravado, Brook raised both arms in a manner to suggest that he wasn’t affected by GGG’s shots, but this did not deter the Kazakh, who then quickly resumed his attack.

Brook tried to land a couple of range finder jabs that had a sole purpose to position his own body to clinch Golovkin, but with just over a minute remaining, Dominic Ingle tried to gain the attention of the referee to call a halt to the fight… and with 66 seconds remaining of the round, GGG had successfully completed the seventeenth defence of his middleweight title, scoring a dominant fifth round TKO.

My scorecards at the time of the stoppage read 39-37 to Golovkin.

[SFW]

Good review. Some of these fans were scoring punches for Brook as soon as he made the arm motion to throw them. No idea how anyone could think Brook was winning that fight. Valiant effort, thank God Ingle stopped it.

[sharpei_louis]

Equally as biased as the British commentary team, just the other way round.

[gilgamesh]

Equally as biased as the British commentary team, just the other way round.

No. 39-37 Golovkin going into the 5th is accurate. You could have it 38-38 going into the 5th as well, but those are the only scores that make sense.

[Oiky]

That's a accurate and honest review

[Boxerbeetle]

I'd forgotten about the 'knockdown' in round 3 actually - I did think it was legitimate when I watched it live, although I haven't watched the fight back so will have to revisit.

Anyway, that was a good review, I enjoyed reading it.

[fanman]

Of course in retrospect it was an easy formality for ggg and he played with his opponent.
I dont feel that this analysis does justice to the fight. For the first time ggg met someone who could outbox and outland him.
You are right to note that ggg hurt him badly in the first minute but brook came back effectively to give ggg some scares.
It may all look easy but brook was certainly hurting ggg with some combos and it was only the furious relentlessness of ggg that forced brooks corner to throw in the towel.
At the end of the day a win is a win ... Credit to ggg ... But we saw how a highly skilled, brave opponent can give ggg some problems.

[SFW]

Of course in retrospect it was an easy formality for ggg and he played with his opponent.
I dont feel that this analysis does justice to the fight. For the first time ggg met someone who could outbox and outland him.
You are right to note that ggg hurt him badly in the first minute but brook came back effectively to give ggg some scares.
It may all look easy but brook was certainly hurting ggg with some combos and it was only the furious relentlessness of ggg that forced brooks corner to throw in the towel.
At the end of the day a win is a win ... Credit to ggg ... But we saw how a highly skilled, brave opponent can give ggg some problems.

We did, Brook was fantastic. And he got grinded down in under half the scheduled time. Golovkin's pressure is something to behold. He was getting cracked with monster shots, then turned it up a notch and the fight was essentially over. Both fighter's stock should rise from their performances. I know GGG has looked better but he didn't get to brutally end it like he was going to. And Kell is a great fighter, one I underestimated.

[Rob3_142]

I think in the heat of the moment, I too got over excited when Brook was establishing any kind of momentum, and at the time was probably at least scoring them equally. Golovkin for the first and Brook for the second, with the others going evens. But watching back, with a bit more of an objective viewpoint, there's probably argument for Golovkin to have won all the rounds, even the second. From the description of the opening post, Brook only had the upper hand in final 50 seconds, while Golovkin was peppering Brook with the jab throughout.

You can't blame the fans for getting over excited, they obviously wanted their man to do well, and it created one hell of an atmosphere. But Golovkin was crashing some brutal body shots in and jabbing away throughout.

I wish we could have seen Mayweather and GGG in the ring (I know - wishful thinking)

[crusader]

Of course in retrospect it was an easy formality for ggg and he played with his opponent.
I dont feel that this analysis does justice to the fight. For the first time ggg met someone who could outbox and outland him.
You are right to note that ggg hurt him badly in the first minute but brook came back effectively to give ggg some scares.
It may all look easy but brook was certainly hurting ggg with some combos and it was only the furious relentlessness of ggg that forced brooks corner to throw in the towel.
At the end of the day a win is a win ... Credit to ggg ... But we saw how a highly skilled, brave opponent can give ggg some problems.

How was he hurting GGG? Did GGG buckle or stagger at any point? Cheers and screaming commentary doesn't count.

Watching it live and a second time I didn't think Brook had much more success than Monroe did from the third on, although Willie didn't get huge cheers and jumping up and down ringside whenever he threw a combo or landed a decent shot.

[Pureist]

Fergus, have you turned the corner, that was actually quite good, as for brook hurting GGG, the best shot brook hit GGG with was that uppercut, they showed it in slo mo and as GGGs head was being lifted up by the punch, you could clearly see GGGs steely very clear stare at brook, that defiantly didn't hurt him, his eyes were as clear as crystal

[fanman]

[/quote]How was he hurting GGG? Did GGG buckle or stagger at any point? Cheers and screaming commentary doesn't count.

Watching it live and a second time I didn't think Brook had much more success than Monroe did from the third on, although Willie didn't get huge cheers and jumping up and down ringside whenever he threw a combo or landed a decent shot.[/quote]

True, ggg eat the shots up like pac-man, and barely flinched. I suppose i mean to say brook landed some very good shots, but just shows what a beast ggg is at 160.
For all the talk of kell being a natural middleweight, there was quite a clear distinction in terms of strength in there.

[jezzamundo]

I think you've been a bit harsh on Brook and generous to GGG. For me, round 1 was a competitive but clear round for GGG. Brook clearly won the 2nd. The third I scored even based on giving GGG no credit for the slip (I need to rewatch it as many here have now said it was a clear KD). Round 4 was another close one that I thought Brook edged. So I had it 2-1-1 Brook. I watched the fight a second time with HBO commentary and had it 2-2 with GGG winnings rounds 1 and 3, Brook winning 2 and 4.

In summary, I think the 3rd and 4th are swing rounds that could fairly be scored to either fighter, so a scorecard of 3-1 either way is reasonable.

It's still a good win for GGG as Brook is the most skilled fighter on his resume and is probably only one division smaller than him in terms of his natural size. The stoppage seemed early at the time, but turned out to be spot-on, considering the injury.

[littlepug]

I think you've been a bit harsh on Brook and generous to GGG. For me, round 1 was a competitive but clear round for GGG. Brook clearly won the 2nd. The third I scored even based on giving GGG no credit for the slip (I need to rewatch it as many here have now said it was a clear KD). Round 4 was another close one that I thought Brook edged. So I had it 2-1-1 Brook. I watched the fight a second time with HBO commentary and had it 2-2 with GGG winnings rounds 1 and 3, Brook winning 2 and 4.

In summary, I think the 3rd and 4th are swing rounds that could fairly be scored to either fighter, so a scorecard of 3-1 either way is reasonable.

I think trying to work out who won which rounds is a bit futile, don't think GGG is really bothered about banking rounds because the end game is the ko for him, and don't think brook was too bothered either, he was just doing enough to make it look like he "belonged" in there

[jezzamundo]

I think you've been a bit harsh on Brook and generous to GGG. For me, round 1 was a competitive but clear round for GGG. Brook clearly won the 2nd. The third I scored even based on giving GGG no credit for the slip (I need to rewatch it as many here have now said it was a clear KD). Round 4 was another close one that I thought Brook edged. So I had it 2-1-1 Brook. I watched the fight a second time with HBO commentary and had it 2-2 with GGG winnings rounds 1 and 3, Brook winning 2 and 4.

In summary, I think the 3rd and 4th are swing rounds that could fairly be scored to either fighter, so a scorecard of 3-1 either way is reasonable.

I think trying to work out who won which rounds is a bit futile, don't think GGG is really bothered about banking rounds because the end game is the ko for him, and don't think brook was too bothered either, he was just doing enough to make it look like he "belonged" in there

I agree, I think Brook was really trying to win, though, it just wasn't going to happen, bar a freak cut.