Crolla: Brook Will Need More Than Talent To Beat Golovkin

By Edward Chaykovsky

WBA lightweight world champion Anthony Crolla (31-4-3, 13KOs) believes his friend and countryman, Kell Brook, will have a more than a tough task ahead of him on September 10th at the O2 Arena in London.

Brook, the current IBF welterweight champion, will head north by thirteen pounds to challenge Golovkin at 160-pounds for the IBF/IBO/WBC/WBA middleweight world titles.

Crolla is preparing for his own tough task, set for September 24th against WBC champion in recess Jorge LInarez.

Crolla has trained side by side with Brook (36-0, 25KOs) in the past and considers him to be a very talented fighter, but he believes the Sheffield man will be too undersized to beat the best middleweight in the world.

Crolla has found himself in similar situations in his last few fights, where he was viewed as the underdog and came from behind to knock his opponents out. But he was facing fighters from within his own weight division, where Brook is blowing himself up to the middleweight division and appears to be packing on mass to counter-act Golovkin's natural advantage in size.

"It's a huge fight [Golovkin v Brook], one of the biggest fights in Britain for years.  To have a pound-for-pound star like Golovkin coming over here shows the strength of British boxing - and not just the boxing, but the fans. The atmosphere they create is like no other," Crolla said to Sky Sports.

"He is the underdog and it is a really big ask but anyone who knows Kell, or has trained alongside Kell, will know how talented he is. He is going to need more than that next Saturday but it's a fight I can't wait to see.You only have to look at all the world champions we've got and I feel blessed to be part of that."