By Edward Chaykovsky
According to Abel Sanchez, trainer of WBA/IBO/IBF/WBC middleweight world champion Gennady 'GGG' Golovkin (35-0, 32KOs), they view IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook (36-0, 25KOs) as a serious threat.
Next Saturday night at the O2 Arena in London, Brook will rise up by two weight division, thirteen pounds, to challenge Golovkin for his titles.
Golovkin has stopped his last 22 opponents in eleven rounds or less. Brook is viewed as a serious underdog with very few experts even giving him a shot to go the full twelve round distance.
While Brook is recognized as the smaller man, Sanchez expects him to be the bigger man on fight night. Brook weighed 176-pounds when the WBC made him undergo their mandatory 30-day weight check. Golovkin was eleven pounds lighter at 165-pounds.
Sanchez has gone up against Brook and his trainer Dominic Ingle in the past, when the British fighter struggled to win a decision against Carson Jones several years ago. Brook claimed that he nearly killed himself to make weight for that fight and had nothing left in the ring. The rematch was a different story, with Brook powering past Jones for a knockout win.
"I know that he's not going to be smaller than Golovkin. He's going to be bigger than Golovkin, even on the night of the fight. My question is, can he take the power for twelve rounds - if it happens to go twelve rounds.... I don't think so," Sanchez told Sky Sports.
"The fight excites me because I finally got an undefeated fighter who doesn't know how to lose, doesn't know how to get hurt, has been knocking almost everyone out the same as Golovkin. I know that Golovkin feels a threat and because of that I feel a threat. I feel like I'm on stage too. I'm competing with the Ingles to make sure they don't beat me again."
