Kell Brook vs Gennady Golovkin: Eddie Hearn confirms middleweight world title superfight to take place in London

IBF welterweight Brook will take on pound-for-pound No 1 Golovkin, who currently holds the WBA, WBC and IBO middleweight world titles

Kell Brook takes on Frankie Gavin (Getty Images)

Britain’s Kell Brook has agreed to fight pound-for-pound No 1 Gennady Golovkin in a middleweight world title unification bout at London’s O2 Arena on 10 September, it has been confirmed by promoter Eddie Hearn.

Current IBF welterweight champion Brook will step up to middleweight for the first time in his career to take on Golovkin, who is recognised as a specialist knockout artist who boasts 32 stoppages in 35 unbeaten fights.

While Brook is ever-so-slightly more experienced, having not tasted defeat in his 36-bout career, Golovkin is widely regarded as the best boxer on the planet current still fighting, following Floyd Mayweather’s retirement last year.

Golovkin was called out by Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez after the Mexican knocked out Britain’s Amir Khan in May, but talks never reached an agreement and Canelo has already agreed to fight another Briton in WBO light middleweight champion Liam Smith.

That left Golovkin looking for his next opponent, and despite Chris Eubank Jr pushing hard to face the Kazakh boxer, Matchroom Boxing confirmed on Friday afternoon that Brook will face Golovkin in London in what is an incredibly dangerous fight to take for 30-year-old Brook.

“This is the fight and the moment I have been waiting for for some time,” said Brook, who has been hard done by to miss out on elite level fights after being avoided by a number of boxers that includes Khan.

“We’ve tried and tried to lure the best to come and fight me and now we’ve got the best of the best – the number one pound for pound fighter in the world is coming to the UK.

“When this fight got offered to me I accepted within minutes and I can’t wait. Everyone knows I’m a huge welterweight and I know I will carry my speed and accuracy and even more power through the weights. This is the ultimate fight, one of the biggest international fights the country has seen in many years – you have seen some huge names run from GGG but I’m running to him. I’m a Special fighter and I will show the World on September 10.”


 IBF welterweight champion Brook has struggled to secure elite level fights 
 (Getty)

34-year-old Golovkin, affectionately known as ‘GGG’ admitted that the allure of fighting in front of the British public convinced him to take the London fight against Brook.

“I’m very excited to be fighting in front of the great British boxing fans and promise another ‘Big Drama Show’ against Kell Brook,” said Golovkin, whose last victory came against Dominic Wade on23 April.

“I cannot tell you how excited I am for this mega fight,” said Brook’s promoter Hearn. “I’ve worked hard with Tom [Loffler, Golovkin’s promoter] over the years to bring GGG to the UK and now we do it as the number one pound-for-pound fighter in the world. Right here you have the number one welterweight in the world against the number one middleweight in the world – 36-0 vs. 35-0, two of the best on the planet, it’s what big time boxing is all about.

Golovkin holds an unblemished 35-0 record with 32 knockouts (Getty) (GETTY IMAGES)

“I couldn’t be happier for Kell. We have pushed for that big name for a long time with many reluctant to step into the ring with him and now this is the ultimate challenge, the biggest fight of 2016 and I can’t tell you how happy I am to bring it to the UK. September 10 is going to be an incredible night at The O2 – it’s a special night for British sport and we will provide a packed show with multiple World title fights and some of the biggest names in British boxing.”

Ticket information for the London showdown will be released by Matchroom Boxing next week.