Hearn: If Khan doesn’t fight Mayweather, he has to fight Kell Brook

By Boxing News - 12/20/2014 - Comments

hearn44By Scott Gilfoid: Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn is counting on Amir Khan facing his fighter IBF welterweight champion if Khan gets passed over by Floyd Mayweather Jr for a fight in early 2015. Mayweather has pretty much already ruled out a fight against Khan in early 2015 anyway, but Khan appears to be stubbornly holding out hope that he’ll still get the fight against Mayweather if he doesn’t wind up facing Pacquiao.

Hearn is also holding out hope that Khan will wind up facing his guy Brook if he can’t get the Mayweather fight, which would seem like it’s going to be the case.

I wouldn’t bet on Khan taking a fight against Brook, however, even if Khan has no other options but to fight him. Unless they want to drag Khan kicking and screaming into a Brook fight, I don’t think he’s going to take a fight against him in 2015.

Khan seems to be in a waiting pattern right now where he’s not going to take any dangerous fights until he gets either a Mayweather or a Manny Pacquiao payday fight. Whether that holding pattern extends into 2016 is the big question.

My guess is Khan, if he doesn’t get a fight against either of the two big stars, will likely face powder puff opposition though 2016 while he waits for a big money fight against Mayweather or Pacquiao to fall into his lap by gravity.

“I just feel that if Amir doesn’t fight Floyd Mayweather he has to fight Kell Brook,” Hearn said to the Telegraph.co.uk. “He’d make minimum five and probably more like six or seven million US dollars (£4.5m) to fight Kell Brook,” Hearn said. “If Khan was creating PPV numbers of say 2 million, they would take the fight with him straight away.”

It’s hard to believe Khan would make $6-7 million to face Brook. With that kind of payday, why isn’t Khan looking to fight Brook? I think the answer is obvious. Khan would make more than that if he could get a fight against either Pacquiao or Mayweather, so he’s sitting around waiting for one of those fights to come to him. But the thing is Khan is wasting a lot of time when he could be getting some good cash to fight Brook.

The fact that he’s not interested in facing Brook and scooping up the good cash is telling. It suggests to me that Khan doesn’t have confidence that he can beat Brook, because if he did he’d have signed on for that fight already. I mean, how do you not sign the contract for a fight that will pay you as much as $7 million when your last fight paid you around $800,000?

Hearn will need to keep Brook busy in 2015, because I don’t see Khan showing any interest in facing him. The fight is too dangerous for Khan, and it looks like he’s intent to wait out a fight against Mayweather or Pacquiao.



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