By Radio Rahim
WBC/IBO/WBA/IBF middleweight champion Gennady 'GGG' Golovkin (35-0, 32KOs), and his trainer Abel Sanchez, were not surprised when Kell Brook (36-0, 25KOs) weighed in at 176-pounds for the WBC's 30-day weight check.
The 30-day limit is 176, which Brook met. Golovkin was only five pounds above the middleweight limit, coming in at 165.
It was a strange scenario, because Brook - who holds the IBF's welterweight title - is moving up by thirteen pounds and two weight divisions to face Golovkin.
Golovkin's opinion of Brook's stature changed quickly when they went face to face at their kickoff press conference.
"I was not surprised [he weighed 176], because I saw him and he is not small guy. He is a little bit shorter than me. He looked big. This is a serious fight for us," Golovkin said.
Sanchez remembers back to July of 2012, when he trained Carson Jones for his first fight with Brook. Before the fight took place, Sanchez received inside information, that Brook was seriously struggling to make weight. Brook was very lackluster in the fight and began to fall apart in the second half as Jones was close to stopping him. He barely managed to win a close twelve round majority decision on the cards.
"When I saw him four years ago. He was a young guy and he was having issues making weight. In this business things get out of training camp and I heard that for three or four days he was throwing up trying to make weight for the Carson fight. And that was four years ago. Since then he's grown, he's matured," Sanchez said.
