Last night, at the O2 Arena in London, Gennady Golovkin retained his middleweight titles with a fifth round stoppage.
An electric atmosphere welcomed both fighters to the ring with Brook, who was stepping up two weights from welterweight to middleweight receiving a rapturous reception. Golovkin, surprisingly, was booed by some of those in the arena.
After the introductions had been made the sound of the bell signalled that it was time to get down to business, the champion made a good start forcing Brook?s head back with some hard-hitting jabs before hurting Brook with a couple of fierce left-hooks. But Brook, absorbed the punches well and finished the round of with a few meaningful punches of his own.
Golovkin, cutting down the ring-size, continued to hunt down Brook in the second round but the Sheffield man finished the round well catching Golovkin with some eye-catching left hooks and uppercuts sending the crowd into a frenzied state.
Brook appeared to be having trouble with his eye in the third round, dabbing away at the eye socket with his glove, however the challenger used his hand-speed to catch Golovkin with some solid combinations as the noise inside the arena was upped a level or two.
As we entered the fourth round the fight had settled into a pattern, Golovkin, in his usual manner, was hunting his man down whilst Brook was catching the champion with some good shots, with rounds proving difficult to score.
However, as the fifth round commenced Golovkin appeared to go up another gear, Brook was being caught far more often and with Brook trapped on the ropes taking some heavy shots his trainer, Dominic Ingle, threw the white towel in.
Initially the Canadian referee failed to notice it but stopped the fight as soon as he did with Brook being pulled out of the fight for his own safety.
After the fight Brook complained about his eye socket being injured with the result that he couldn?t focus properly, remarking in the post-fight interview,
‘I was frustrating him. I was starting to settle into it but when you see three, four, five of them it’s difficult.?
The defeat was the first of Brook?s 37 fight career whilst Golovkin, labelled the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, took his record to 36 straight wins with 33 coming by way of knockout, including all of his last 23.
Golovkin marches on, as for Brook he did himself proud but must now make a big decision as to what weight he is now going to operate at. Does he stick at middleweight, does he drop back down to welterweight or does he decide to operate as a light-middleweight?
Brook Beaten by Golovkin in Five Rounds
