By Rusty Nate: The situation surrounding IBF Welterweight Champion Kell Brook (34-0-23 KOs) and Amir Khan (30-3-19 KOs) is getting to the point of embarrassing for British Boxing.
Kell Brook recently defeated his mandatory IBF challenger Jo Jo Dan (34-3-18ko) by 4th round stoppage very comfortably. Brook barely took a decent shot and looked in control from the start, flooring Dan four times on route to victory. Given Brook’s circumstances, being stabbed last year, the performance was punch perfect and a good fight to get him back into the swing of his career. He looked sharp and in good shape.
The talking point has come after the fight when again Kell called out Amir Khan to fight him in the UK at Wembley Stadium on June 13th.
Amir Khan has again retreated behind his claims that Brook is below him and needs to build up his reputation in America by fighting bigger names in the division before the fight can be made.
To me this is the most ridiculous attempt to duck a fight and try to come out the other side looking like he has legitimate reasons to back up his refusal to fight Brook.
Let’s just start by reminding Amir Khan that Ring Magazine completely disagrees with him. Brook is a pound-for-pound ranked higher than Amir Khan, and to be honest that’s correct at the moment in my eyes.
First of all building a reputation in the U.S has zero to do with whether this fight is made and has no bearing on the money both could earn. Case in point would be Carl Froch vs. George Groves, both fights were huge money makers with a global audience (in Particular the 2nd fight), and yet Groves even now is relatively unknown in the U.S as a world class fighter at the weight he operates in. Brook vs. Khan would potentially be bigger than Froch vs. Groves in the UK.
Khan has also stated that Brook needs to prove himself against other fighters first, he then he has named examples of Brandon Rios, Keith Thurman, Juan Manuel Marquez and Marcos Maidana. Three of which Khan has not fought and one [Maidana] he struggled with badly in 2010 and actually should have lost to in many people’s opinions. Khan has fought three decent world level fighters going back to when he won the WBA Light Welterweight title. They are Maidana (a questionable points win) Lamont Peterson (he lost on points) and Danny Garcia. Khan got poleaxed by Garcia in 2012, and stopped relatively easily. Take into account that these all happened at Light Welterweight. Since stepping up, Khan has fought three light hitters in Julio Dias, Luis Collazo and Devon Alexander. All of whom had pretty average records going into the fight with Khan.
Brook, regardless of his early record, has gone to the U.S and won a world title against a U.S fighter that in my opinion would KO Khan if they met. Brook is unbeaten in 34 fights, he is a world champion at the weight he has always operated at and in Money terms is the biggest option Khan has for the foreseeable future.
I know this sounds like a very one sided view and like I am a huge Khan hater but I am truly no more of a fan of Brook than Khan when it comes to their careers at all, I like them both a lot but I do think that Khan is acting a little bit like Floyd Mayweather Jr. with the way he talks about himself and who is “good enough” to fight him. The difference is Mayweather has been the biggest draw in boxing for years and fought all the top fighters. Khan is potentially one or two defeats / draws away from being a Journeyman. So I guess what I am trying to say is man up and just get the fight on NOW whilst you still can make a lot of money from it!
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