Sunday 4 September 2016 15:27, UK
Paul Smith says Kell Brook has the tools to trouble Gennady Golovkin but fears size and power may prove too big a factor when they meet on Saturday, live on Sky Box Office.
Brook (36-0-KO25) weighed in at 167.8lbs compared to Golovkin's 162.9lbs in the final WBC check-weigh on Friday before the official weigh-in next week ahead of the middleweight title bout at The O2.
However, despite thinking Brook needed to step up from welterweight, Smith believes WBA Super, WBC and IBF world middleweight champion Golovkin (35-0-KO32) is the more natural at this weight and labelled the Kazakh as a "destroyer".
"It's a naturally bigger man, obviously Kell has been boiling himself down to do welterweight for so long and it was no secret that he was working very hard to make the weight and every credit to him for getting down to welterweight being so naturally big," Smith told Sky Sports News HQ.
"He looks great at middleweight - all the photographs, videos and the footage that I have seen of Kell recently, he looks in fantastic shape. He looks like a natural middleweight but the fact is he is not a natural middleweight.
"He will end up a big light-middleweight, so to speak, but Golovkin is a naturally powerful, strong middleweight who is feared and avoided and just a massive, ferocious puncher at middleweight and so strong.
"Everyone that speaks about Golovkin, he is known all around the world for it, he is a destroyer, basically, and Kell has to stay away from him, 'I'll box him and try confuse him and pick him off and make Golovkin miss' for 12 rounds. I don't think there is a middleweight/super-middleweight out there who could stop Golovkin in his tracks, he is so strong.
"He's [Brook] certainly got the style and ability to trouble him. It is a fascinating fight in the fact that it is the weight differential between them both. If it was Golovkin moving up two weights to fight Brook then it would certainly be a very close fight but the way that Brook is moving up, he's a naturally big lad anyway, he was always too big for welterweight.
"The fact that he is moving up to middleweight to challenge someone like Golovkin, who is absolutely frightening, feared, avoided and probably the most dangerous fighter in the world, probably out of him and [Sergey] Kovalev at the minute, so it is a massive ask for Kell Brook."
Smith refused to write Brook off completely but again pointed to the punching power of Golovkin as critical and questioned whether the Sheffield man will be able to handle that strength over 12 rounds.
"Kell Brook has got the tools - has he got the size, the endurance and the durability to take what Gennady Golovkin is going to be giving him on Saturday night? It is a massive ask and everyone will be behind him but I don't think you'll be able to prepare for Golovkin and then just get in there and probably realise it is a different game when you are in there with him," he said.
"I think he is one of those fighters. I know from watching him, there are not many fighters in the world who would like to be in the ring with Golovkin so, again, you have to tip your hat to Kell Brook for even taking this fight and going in to the massive stage of a Golovkin fight.
"I think Golovkin is a massive favourite but Brook has two arms, two legs and has got a chance, 100 per cent. It is not the chance that anyone will probably be putting the smart money on, and I don't want to sound disrespectful to Kell, but it is a massive ask.
"Everyone has a chance of beating Golovkin but it is actually going through with it and doing it. But it is boxing, it is a fight and stranger things have happened. There has been bigger upsets."
Smith will go in hunt of a third world title shot on the undercard of the bout on Saturday night alongside his brother Callum who will be defending his WBC Silver title against Hungarian Norbert Nemesapati.
He considered retiring after his defeat to Andre Ward in June last year but changed his mind after spending some time with his family and says he wants to win a world title in a bid to keep up with his brothers.
"I feel I have a lot to offer and I do feel that I can get another world title fight and that's why I am in the game," he said.
"I feel like I have got to win a world title to keep up with my three brothers because Liam is obviously world champion at the minute, I think Stephen is No 2 in the WBC now and will fight for the world title soon, I think he's certainly good enough to win a world title.
"And Callum is now mandatory challenger for the WBC title and I can see him winning that as well so I'm going to have to get a world title to hold my own at home!"
Watch Gennady Golovkin v Kell Brook, live on Sky Sports Box Office from The O2, September 10. Book the event online here.
