Floyd Mayweather respects Kell Brook for taking on GGG
Saturday 17 September 2016 20:26, UK
Kell Brook's brave attempt to dethrone undefeated middleweight king Gennady Golovkin has earned the British boxer the respect of ring legend Floyd Mayweather.
Brook's bid to become the first reigning welterweight to win a title at 160lbs in 50 years ended when his corner threw in the towel during last weekend's thrilling showdown at The O2.
Trainer Dominic Ingle took the decision to call a halt in the fifth round following a barrage of unanswered punches that left Brook pinned on the ropes.
The Sheffield fighter, who sustained a broken eye socket and was unable see out of his right eye following the second round, has backed his trainer's decision which resulted in his first defeat after 36 straight wins.
However, Mayweather, the former pound-for-pound king turned promoter, believes Brook was shading the fight and should have been allowed to continue.
"If I was in Kell Brook's corner, I wouldn't have stopped the fight… honestly," Mayweather told Fighthype.com
"Very, very close fight, some had Triple G ahead, some had Kell Brook ahead. I probably had Kell Brook ahead a little bit.
"But in the sport of boxing, it's about taking risks. I respect Kell Brook for taking a risk, going up two weight classes, now we're waiting for Triple G to go up and take risks like every other champion."
Shawn Porter, who lost his IBF title to Brook, thought his conqueror would last the distance but believes Golovkin's punching power is too much for a fighter stepping up in weight.
"He comes out, he's throwing his hands and he's hitting Triple G, but over the course of five rounds he took a lot of clean shots and those clean shots really broke him down really quickly," Porter told Fighthype.
"GGG is no joke...I didn't think that Kell Brook would get stopped, obviously his corner threw in the towel in. He was taking a lot of shots prior to that but I thought that fight would go the distance.
"I think he's just too powerful for anybody coming up to fight him at 160lbs."
WBA welterweight champion Keith Thurman, who beat Porter on points in his last fight in June, believes stepping up two divisions was too ambitious, insisting himself or light-middleweight star Saul "Canelo" Alvarez would have been more suitable opponents for Brook.
"If he can't make 147; fights at 154, you're looking at a puncher like Canelo, at 147, you're looking at a puncher like me," Thurman added on Fighthype.com.
"The biggest mistake was to not face punchers like a Keith Thurman, to not face a puncher like a Canelo Alvarez before facing a puncher at 160.
"We're taking about punchers from multiple weight classes and he didn't mess with a puncher from his own weight class."
