Has UFC’s Conor McGregor inspired Kell Brook to step up and fight Gennady Golovkin?

Many of us fight fans had two particular bouts high on our wish list in 2016: Gennady Golovkin vs Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez and Amir Khan vs Kell Brook.

While the former bout at middleweight would have determined the successor to seemingly-retired Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao at the top of the pound-for-pound boxing charts and the latter served as a mouth-watering domestic clash at welterweight, Friday evening saw the second of two peculiar turns which pretty much confirmed neither would take place… yet.

Jaws dropped earlier this year when Khan announced he’d signed on to fight Alvarez. It meant Amir was stepping up two entire weight divisions to take on the hard-hitting Mexican in completely uncharted territory. However, unbeaten IBF welterweight king Brook on Friday evening made that shocker seem about as dull as Mayweather choosing to go out vs Andre Berto in comparison.

While many respected Khan’s inevitable demise against Alvarez, it was possible to trace some kind of logic to his plucky pursuit of such an unobtainable goal. In opting against fighting Brook sooner, Khan explained that he wanted the big fights - Mayweather and/or Pacquiao - before considering ‘Special K’ whom he deemed “not at his level” just yet.

When Floyd and Manny overlooked Amir for their last fights, Khan seemingly continued his way down the list of box office draws and arrived next at Canelo - even if it meant a jump up in weight even the very best struggle to pull off.

Brook, meanwhile, had other options. Golovkin seemed destined to fight Chris Eubank Jr at the same venue, on the same date. Suddenly, things ground to a halt, with GGG and his team accusing the outspoken Eubank camp of “losing their pen” when the time came to sign the deal. Even more suddenly, Kell, who looked set to fight Jessie Vargas in a welterweight unification bout, was offered the spot against Golovkin and accepted instantly.

While the Sheffield man is currently recognised at the best active fighter at 147, challenges such as Vargas and Keith Thurman were on the horizon. And while he is indeed a great fighter, Golovkin simply does not look like he will stopped any time soon by a middleweight or even a super-middle, let alone a rangy welter willing to step up to get the high-profile fight Khan has denied him for some time.

Despite his issues with Brook over the years, Amir praised his brazen decision to take on Golovkin - even if he did so whilst cheekily taking credit for the idea.

He said on Twitter: “Behind you 100% @SpecialKBrook glad you took a leaf out of my book, tough ask but anything can happen, just don’t pull out.

"British fighters running the sport of boxing right now, so many fighters willing to fight the best and taking chances.”

Eubank Jnr, whose profile isn’t near the level of Brook and who actually competes at middleweight, seemed like a much more calculated risk for challenging GGG - a strong showing against the Kazakh destroyer even in defeat would have done Eubank’s career more good than another five straight wins over the likes of Tom Doran.

So… what exactly happened to the bout which seemed locked on for the O2 a week ago? Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn’s quotes on the matter were quite something.

“I worked for three weeks on that fight (Eubank Jr versus Golovkin), negotiating with Chris Eubank Sr. It felt like three years.

"We got into a position where everybody was ready to sign. He (Eubank Jr) was offered the same pay-per-view deal as Anthony Joshua, Carl Froch and the one that Kell Brook accepted.

"Unfortunately they (the Eubanks) made the deal impossible. They wanted operational control on everything that has to do with the show.

“They’re not promoters. They don’t know what they’re doing. I wasn’t going to have anything to do with that kind of show.

“I went back to them and said, ‘Listen, this is the deal; it’s the same deal as Anthony Joshua. It’s the same deal as Froch, You own the show. You own the money, but we are the promoters, and ultimately it’s our license, it’s our brand. It’s our image we built up over 30 years of promoting boxing and you’ve got until 5:00 p.m. tomorrow.’

“That was on Thursday, and they didn’t come back to me, I called Kell Brook that night.”

In accepting such a step up, Brook not only follows in the footsteps of Khan but also UFC superstar Conor McGregor, whose ambitions to hold titles at two separate weight classes saw him fight - and lose to - Nate Diaz in March at welterweight despite being the featherweight champion, two weight classes lower.

It could be argued that McGregor has set a bit of a trend in the usually ‘safe’ realm of fight sports matchmaking, taking such a chance and retaining his reputation (and prior title) by taking such a bold risk at a higher weight. And while we cannot assume 100% that Golovkin will end the unbeaten record of Brook in September until the fight happens, it’s fair to say that everyone is already wondering if a loss to GGG at middle will have as much of an upside to Kell’s marketability as the McGregor experiment is inside the Octagon.