Despite a game effort by welterweight Kell Brook through four rounds, his trainer threw in the towel following a furious attack from Gennady Golovkin in the fifth.
The victory, Golovkin?s 23rd consecutive knockout, was his 17th straight middleweight title triumph in defense of his International Boxing Federation and World Boxing Council belts at London?s O2 Arena.
Brook (36-1), after complaining of blurred vision that caused him to see ?three or four? Golovkins following a hard second-round punch, was absorbing some heavy punches from Golovkin in the fifth when his trainer Dominic Ingle stood on the ring apron and intervened, referee Marlon Wright waving off the action to Brook?s wonder and dismay.
?Absolutely, a fight of this magnitude should?ve carried on,? Brook said on HBO. ?I wanted to carry on. Knock me out.
?I?m frustrated. I had more to give. I believe I would?ve took over. I was getting more and more confident.?
Brook, the International Boxing Federation?s welterweight champion, was rocked by a first-round punch that Golovkin said made it clear to him that ?he?s not a middleweight, this is not his division.?
But Golovkin (36-0, 33 KOs) and his Big Bear-based trainer Abel Sanchez rated his own showing no better than a ?4.?
Brook snapped Golovkin?s head back with a second-round uppercut to clearly win that round, and rallied impressively in the third and fourth rounds to strike Golovkin with clean punches.
?He touched me, I don?t feel it,? Golovkin told HBO. ?I was like, ?G, take your time, he?s broken.?
?From the second round, I knew, this is not boxing, this is a street fight. Today, I was not boxing world class. This was like sparring.?
Golovkin alluded to the idea last week that he wouldn?t mind appearing somewhat vulnerable, given the interest in a showdown against Mexico?s Canelo Alvarez that Alvarez, 25, has said he does not expect to take until September 2017 as he finds comfort fighting at 160 pounds while Golovkin, 34, ages.
?I don?t look good, he has interest,? Golovkin told The Times in Big Bear.
Sanchez said his fighter ?allowed himself to get in a bar fight. He was trying too hard to knock Kell out. I told [Golovkin] it?s a 12-round fight, [to] beat on him.?
Golovkin clearly pressed the action to start the final three rounds, hammering Brook in the fifth with blows that caused the challenger, bleeding under the right eye, to raise his arms as if the punishment wasn?t having effect.
Some hard rights on Brook?s head followed, though, and his corner sensed it might be time to end the well-paid experiment and return to full health in a lighter weight class, with Brook saying he?d like to ?clean out? the 154-pound division.
?The corner did the right thing. He was taking too many clean shots and I think something?s wrong with the right eye, those heavy hands could?ve hurt him permanently,? Sanchez said. ?Getting hit with too many clean shots is dangerous. We knew over time we?d break him down.?
Brook agreed to the Golovkin assignment after his promoter Eddie Hearn?s middleweight Chris Eubank Jr. balked at the same financial terms.
Unless Alvarez?s position to delay a Golovkin bout until September 2017 changes ? Alvarez fights 154-pound champion Liam Smith Sept. 17 outside Dallas — Golovkin said he?d like to next fight World Boxing Organization middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders to potentially capture all four middleweight belts.
Another attractive next matchup for Golovkin would be the WBA?s secondary ?world? middleweight champion, Brooklyn?s Daniel Jacobs.
On Friday, Jacobs (32-1, 29 KOs) knocked down Southland challenger Sergio Mora five times en route to a seventh-round technical-knockout triumph in Reading, Pennsylvania.
HBO is obligated to provide Golovkin a third fight in 2016, but the premium cable network has been hamstrung by spending restrictions this year that led to Manny Pacquiao?s Nov. 5 bout becoming a self-distributed venture by his promoter, Top Rank.
HBO balked at expensing a license fee that could?ve been used for the July 23 junior-welterweight title unification between Terence Crawford and Viktor Postol that was placed on HBO pay-per-view.
So it?s considered a longshot whether the network would spend to match Golovkin against Jacobs, who?s assigned to powerful boxing manager Al Haymon?s Premier Boxing Champions.
Pugmire reported from Los Angeles.
