By Steve Kim

It was anticipated for the past month or so that WBO welterweight titlist Jessie Vargas would face IBF belt-holder Kell Brook (36-0, 25KOs) in a unification bout in September. But those plans were scuttled when Brook stunningly accepted the assignment to face WBC/WBA/IBF/IBO middleweight kingpin, Gennady Golovkin (35-0, 32KOs) on September 10th in London.

The move surprised Vargas' promoter, Bob Arum who admitted,"It did because everything was done on our side, everything was done with Eddie Hearn( who promotes Brook) but he couldn't get Brook to accept the purse he was offering Brook."

And Arum heard about the news on Friday morning.

"We were told Brook was fighting Gennady Golovkin, Eddie sent us an email five minutes before he made the announcement,"Arum told BoxingScene.com this afternoon. "I was very surprised because Brook has absolutely no chance with Golovkin - none. It's a joke.

"He'll knock him out in whatever round he wants to knock him out. That being said from Brook's standpoint it makes sense because he gets paid a lot of money to get knocked out and he and (Amir) Khan will compete with one another for which knockout was prettier and then end up fighting each other."

Like Khan did in facing Saul Alvarez on May 7th, Brook is moving up in weight significantly in what could be a very dangerous fight.

"All it is,"explained Arum," is fighters now willing to risk everything for a bigger payday I mean, Brook fighting Golovkin makes absolutely no sense except for the payday he's getting and Eubank, Eddie was counting on him fighting Golovkin but apparently he was just mouthing off."

Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com