Golovkin's Trainer: Eubank Waste of Time Led To Kell Brook Deal

By Rick Reeno

This past Friday was an eye-opener for the sport. In a single announcement - two fights were killed and one fight was finalized.

At the start of the week, promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Sport was attempting to finalize two big events for the fall - a welterweight unification between Kell Brook and Jessie Vargas, and a middleweight showdown between British champion Chris Eubank Jr. and WBC/WBA/IBO/IBF middleweight champion Gennady 'GGG' Golovkin.

After both of those fights were hitting a brick wall - Hearn, who promotes both Eubank and Brook, made the best maneuver he saw possible and finalized a very unexpected deal between Brook (36-0, 25KOs) and Golovkin (35-0, 32KOs) for September 10th at the O2 Arena in London. 

For Brook and Hearn, the fight makes good business sense. Brook, regardless of the outcome, retains his IBF title and a loss affect his career or his credibility, because everyone will say Golovkin was simply too big and too strong.

Abel Sanchez, trainer for Golovkin, explained why the deal made sense for his fighter and promoter Tom Loeffler of K2 Promotions. Because they wasted several weeks in a failed attempt to secure Eubank Jr., there was very little time remaining to finalize an opponent, who HBO would approve, for the September date. The entire team was looking to avoid the possibility of losing that September date and facing the possibility of Golovkin's return being pushed back for months.

"We have a September 10th date. Any promoter that you talk to, always tries to book a fight three months to four months before the date - so they can publicize it, so they can promote and everybody can make the money they expect to make," Sanchez detailed to BoxingScene.com.

"We are nine weeks away from the fight. The Chris Eubank negotiations just took up a month, a month for this fight to possibly happen. It didn't happen for a lot of different reasons. I wasn't there. I don't know what Eddie had to deal with as far as [father/manager] Chris Eubank Sr. I don't know what transpired."

"We were lucky that Kell Brook is also promoted by Eddie hearn. About eight months ago, Kell Brook had made comments that he would fight Golovkin at 160-pounds. If you recall that, it was right before the Amir Khan fight with Canelo. So because Eddie Hearn promotes Kell Brook - it became easier to take one name off and put another name, take one picture off the poster for another."

"We don't have the time to have any meaningful negotiations with somebody else. The fight is on the 10th of September and [we didn't know] when would be the next available date from HBO."