THIS week we’ve been taking soundings from our readers on the biggest stories in boxing. The big news has been Kell Brook inking an unlikely challenge against middleweight terror Gennady Golovkin on September 10 in London. We asked our readers if Brook had any chance of beating “GGG”. Some thought he did, 35% actually said he could beat the Kazakh. But 65% are convinced Golovkin will win.
Brook is one of several British underdogs taking on the very best on the planet. This Saturday James “Jazza” Dickens boxes marvellous Cuban Guillermo Rigondeaux, WBO super-welter champ Liam Smith will travel to Las Vegas to box Saul “Canelo” Alvarez on September 17. Of those three fights, we asked our readers which plucky Brit had the best shot of upsetting the odds. The majority thought Liam Smith was in the most competitive fight. 49% said of the brave three he had the best chance of victory against Canelo Alvarez. For our readers Jazza Dickens has the toughest job against the brilliant Rigondeaux, with only 14% favouring his shot. Surprisingly 37% thought Kell Brook had the best chance out of them of getting a win, even though Brook is moving up two weight divisions to take on huge punching Golovkin.
The destructive Russian, Sergey Kovalev was in action on Monday and while he is generally regarded as the light-heavyweight version of Golovkin he didn’t look quite at his ferocious best against Isaac Chilemba. We wondered therefore how he would fare against Andre Ward, whom Kovalev is targeting later this year. The majority, 69% now expect Ward to win. But Kovalev did look tough, only 5% of readers thinking Ward can win by knockout, 64% back him to outpoint Kovalev. Some have kept faith in Kovalev’s power with 20% picking the Russian to score a knockout.
