Gennady Golovkin will face IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook on Saturday in London, England, in an intriguing, albeit surprising, match-up. However, unified middleweight champion Golovkin will not be defending his WBA title, as the organization refused to sanction the bout.
Any statement of principle coming from the World Boxing Association is the stuff of high comedy, especially given the WBA’s propensity for recognizing as many titlists as there are species of insects. And, true to form, the WBA has inserted itself into the Gennady Golovkin-Kell Brook middleweight title fight in a manner that only highlights sanctioning body irrelevance.
According to ESPN.com’s Dan Rafael, the WBA and president Gilberto Mendoza will not recognize Golovkin-Brook as a title fight due to concerns over Brook, who has never fought at 160, moving up two weight classes for the opportunity.
It’s a rather lofty stance from an organization that has consistently had three “champions” per weight class, labelling titlists as “regular” or “super” — distinctions as confusing and often arbitrary as the belts themselves. (And let’s not get started on champions in “recess.”) In any case, here are some details from Rafael’s report:
While the WBA granted Golovkin a special permit to face Brook, the organization declined to sanction it as a world title fight because Brook has never boxed in the 160-pound division and is moving up two weight classes to challenge Golovkin, considered by many the most fearsome puncher in boxing.
“What I most regret is that there are no boxers at 160 pounds who will fight against ‘Triple G,’ and Brook has to move up two divisions to fight against him,” WBA president Gilberto Mendoza Jr. said in making the announcement.
Adding further hilarity to the ruling was K2 Promotions’ Tom Loeffler soundly exposing the WBA’s hypocrisy. Here’s what Loeffler had to say (again, per Rafael):
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K2 Promotions managing director Tom Loeffler, Golovkin’s promoter, said that while the other organizations agreed to sanction the bout with no issues, “somehow the WBA thought it was too dangerous for a welterweight to move up to middleweight to fight the biggest puncher in boxing. I guess that is a compliment to GGG as they sanctioned [Adrien] Broner moving up two divisions [from lightweight to welterweight] to fight Paulie [Malignaggi in 2013] and Roy Jones moving up two divisions [from light heavyweight to heavyweight] to fight John Ruiz [in 2003] for WBA titles, and Kell Brook is undefeated and considered a top pound-for-pound boxer.”
Golovkin’s desire to unify the middleweight division and collect all the belts is well known, so, from a symbolic standpoint, it’s somewhat frustrating that he can’t defend the title he’s held the longest. That said, no one watching Golovkin-Brook remotely cares about championship trinkets, which is ultimately the case in any major fight because the match-up itself is what’s most fascinating.
So, does the WBA’s decision remotely effect your perception of Golovkin-Brook? And what do you make of Golovkin’s insistence on collecting all four belts at 160? Is it a worthwhile quest? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.
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