Danny Garcia wants Khan and Brook fights

By Boxing News - 09/16/2015 - Comments

garcia6655By Scott Gilfoid: Former WBA/WBC light welterweight champion Danny Garcia says he’s very interested in facing both Amir Khan (31-3, 19 KOs) and IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook (35-0, 24 KOs). Whether Garcia gets fights against either of those guys remains to be seen. My guess is Brook’s promoter Eddie Hearn will keep him far, far away from Garcia for as long as humanly possible.

The only way I see Garcia getting a fight against Brook is if he was the IBF mandatory challenger, and Brook had no choice but to take the fight or else he’d be stripped of his IBF title.

You look at the guys that Brook is facing – Jo Jo Dan, Frankie Gavin, Alvaro Morales, Matthew Hatton and Vyacheslav Senchenko – and you can tell that there’s not going to be any change in that regard. Danny Garcia is just too good, and too much of a different type of fighter compared to the guys that Hearn has been feeding Brook since he took over as his promoter.

Brook’s next fight is against Diego Chaves, a fighter with a 1-2-1 record in his last four fights. Sadly, Chaves is actually an improvement over the guys that Hearn has been matching against Brook.

“The Amir Khan fight can happen for sure,” Garcia said to skysports.com. “I think it would be one of the biggest fights in boxing right now. But it’s all about timing; being at the right place at the right time. In the fights I struggled I wasn’t at my best because I wasn’t strong. I was having a hard time making 140. The last four days before the weigh-ins, I was barely eating. I feel a lot better at 147. Any style they put in front of me, I’m going to adapt.”

Garcia stopped Khan in the 4th round in 2012. Khan hasn’t made any effort to fight Garcia again since then, and I doubt that’s going to change now. Khan is totally focused on trying to get a big payday fight against Manny Pacquiao after having failed at getting a big money fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr.

I don’t see Khan take any risks that would potentially mess things up for his payday fight against Pacquiao. I see Khan doing the same thing he did while trying to get the Mayweather fight; namely I think he’s going to face weak opposition in order to keep winning long enough to get the fight against Pacquiao.

Unfortunately for Khan, I don’t think he’s ever going to get a fight against Pacquiao. Yeah, I know Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum has been talking about wanting to match Pacquiao with Khan, but I see Arum doing to bait and switch come next year when Pacquiao fights next. Arum will mention Khan, Lucas Matthsse and Kell Brook as possible opponents for Pacquiao, but I think he’s just doing this to keep Pacquiao’s name in the news.

By mentioning as many top fighters as possible for Pacquiao, Arum is name dropping and keeping boxing fans from forgetting about Pacquiao. He was beaten soundly by Floyd Mayweather Jr. last May, and a lot of boxing fans think Pacquiao is a shot fighter and is finished. By Arum mentioning Pacquiao in the same breath as Brook, Matthysse and Khan, he keeps Pacquiao’s name alive in the minds of fans. But ultimately, I see Arum doing the bait and switch by matching Pacquiao against his own fighter Terence Crawford in February or March next year instead of Khan, Matthysse or Brook.

When asked if he would be interested in challenging IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook for his title, Garcia said “He’s the IBF champion. I want to be champion. We can make the fight happen.”

I would like to see Garcia and Brook fight, but like I said, I don’t see Hearn ever letting Garcia get a shot against Brook.



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