Khan considering a fight with Brook next year

By Boxing News - 10/08/2011 - Comments

Image: Khan considering a fight with Brook next yearBy William Mackay: IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan is still undecided about who he’ll be fighting when/if he moves up to welterweight next year to continue his fruitless chasing of Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Khan recently said he’s interested in facing Matthew Hatton, the light hitting younger brother of Ricky Hatton in his first fight at 147 lbs. But now Khan is adding unbeaten welterweight contender Kell Brook to the mix.

“If I do fight Kell next year, it won’t be a problem,” Khan said to the Daily Star. “I knocked him about in sparring and if we did fight that would happen again. There has been a lot of talk, but when the pen is over the paper, these people never take the fight.”

Hatton likely remains the leading candidate for Khan to fight in early 2012. But Lamont Peterson, Khan’s next opponent for December 10th, could have a say in all this. If beats Khan in that fight, then you likely won’t see Khan moving up in 2012. After all, his biggest reason for moving up, his dream of facing Mayweather, will effectively have been destroyed with a loss to Peterson.

Mayweather won’t want Peterson’s leftovers and there really isn’t anyone else at welterweight for Khan to fight unless he wants to fight his good friend Manny Pacquiao or take on one of the old toothless lions like Shane Mosley. I don’t think that fight would make Khan look good if it was preceded by a Khan loss to Peterson. If Khan loses to Peterson, he needs to try and avenge the loss to him instead of walking away and claiming he learned a lesson and that he is really better than Peterson. This is what Khan did with Breidis Prescott after getting knocked out in the 1st round. Khan never even attempted to avenge the defeat and since has adopted the policy of saying it’s not worth fighting him again because he’d easily beat him. Khan got cover when Prescott was subsequently beaten by Miguel Vazquez, Kevin Mitchell and Paul McCloskey in all very close fights.

It’s hard to imagine Brook turning down a fight with Khan. I somehow don’t buy that. I think it’s another case where Khan says something that is a little distorted from what actually happened. Brook wants the Khan fight and the money that would go along with it. Why would he turn down the cash for a Khan fight to take the smaller money fighting obscure domestic level opposition?

I don’t think for a second that Khan will wind up fighting Brook next year. I see Khan ignoring that fight and taking on the weaker target of Matthew Hatton. He’s perfect for Khan – slow, hittable and a weak puncher. In other words, Hatton is no threat to beating Khan.



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