By Scott Gilfoid: Well, it looks like IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook’s soft match-making is catching up to him and preventing him from getting that dream fight against Amir Khan that he’s been eager to get for years and years. Khan feels that Brook just sees him as a vehicle to get a big payday without him having to earn it by facing the best in the welterweight division.
Khan says that if the 29-year-old Brook wants a payday fight against him, then he needs to earn it by beating three highly talented welterweights. If Brook can do that, then Khan will grant him his wish by giving him the fight that he’s been yearning for.
“Why should I give him a payday? Our fight will only happen if he goes on and fights two or three top boxers and beats them, then I am here and he will get his fight,” Khan said to thenationa.ae.
Without Khan saying who those three top fighters are that he wants Brook to fight, we could easily see Brook fight three top guys, and then Khan saying they’re weren’t good enough for his tastes. It would be in Brook and his promoter Eddie Hearn’s best interest to ask Khan who they should look to fight to please his tastes.
My guess is Khan would like to see Brook fight Keith Thurman, Shawn Porter, Errol Spence, and possibly Marcos Maidana as well. If Brook could run the gauntlet through those four fighters and remain unbeaten, the Khan would have to give Brook a fight at that point. I mean, it would look silly if Khan then brought up Danny Garcia and/or Adrien Broner as additional fighters that Brook would need to defeat before he would give him a shot.
The problem is I really don’t think that Brook can beat the likes of Maidana, Thurman, Porter, and Spence. I mean, the tool that Brook used to defeat Porter by a narrow decision was constant holding on the inside to keep Porter from being able to get his shots off. Porter has since learned how to deal with clinchers like Brook, and that tool obviously won’t work a second time. As such, I see Porter easily beating Brook in a rematch. The other guys, Thurman, Maidana and Spence, would also know to fight through Brook’s clinching, and they’d like batter him to pieces.
I just don’t see Brook being a good enough fighter to beat three to four good welterweights in order for him to get a fight against Khan. I think Brook could beat some of the welterweight contenders, but definitely not the good ones. He’s too upright and robotic to beat the better welterweights, and his clinching tricks will no longer work. If Brook wants to beat the best, he’s going to need to do it the clean way and not by using stalling and negating tricks like clinching 24/7.
“What has Kell done? He’s fought bums his entire career, went to the US, won a fight against Shawn Porter, which was a very close fight and many thought he lost that fight,” Khan said.
Khan said it himself that he thought that Brook lost the fight to Porter on the night of their fight.
Brook has fought one good fighter during his career in Shawn Porter, but that’s pretty much the only one. Unfortunately, Brook had to clinch his way through the fight because he couldn’t handle Porter’s inside game. Brook literally got away with just as much clinching as Adrien Broner did, but without being penalized. It was sad to watch a welterweight contest where one fighter was blatantly being held as much as Porter was without the referee doing his job to disqualify the offender.
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