By Scott Gilfoid: The negotiations between Amir Khan (31-4, 19 KOs) and IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook (36-1, 25 KOs) fell apart this week. Khan says that Brook didn’t want the fight. Brook’s promoter Eddie Hearn agreed that they don’t want the Khan fight for a purse split of 70-30, which apparently is what he was asking for.
Hearn reportedly wants a 50-50 split of the revenue for the Brook-Khan fight, but that’s not going to fly with Khan. As such, Khan is going in a different direction for his next fight.
“Eddie, I’m the A-side and you and Kell know he will make more than he did against GGG. Don’t you agree?” said Khan on his social media site.
Hearn responded to Khan, saying this:
“He is correct – at 70-30 we don’t want the fight,” said Hearn.
Hearn believes that with Brook being the IBF welterweight champion, it means he deserves an equal share of the loot for a fight against Khan. However, it’s hard to still see Brook as the IBF champion though, because if he were to fight Khan, he would need to give up the IBF belt due to him bypassing the IBF ordered mandatory challenger Errol Spence Jr.
The IBF title wouldn’t be available for Khan to fight for if he agreed to the 50-50 purse split that Hearn wants. Brook is only going to be the IBF champion for a little while longer until he gives it up next month or is stripped of his title by the IBF for failing to face Spence. If Brook faces Spence, then obviously means no Khan fight. In other words, the IBF title is really little more than a meaningless prop for Brook that can’t be seen as a bargaining tool in negotiations for the Khan fight, because it WON”T be available for the fight.
The IBF has been quite clear on the subject. Brook must defend his IBF title next against Spence. If he chooses to something else, then it won’t be as the IBF champion. Without the IBF title, Brook is just a guy that is coming off of a 5th round knockout loss to Gennady Golovkin in which he stopped punching and was saved by his trainer Dominic Ingle. As a contender, Brook doesn’t have a title and nor does he have much of a resume. Brook has fought two good fighters during his entire 13-year pro career in Golovkin and Shawn Porter. Brook’s record in those two fights is 1-1. That’s not exactly a great record.
I don’t blame Khan for wanting a 70-30 split against Brook, because Khan has done more in his career than Brook has. Khan has been involved in a lot of notable fights during his career against the likes of Marcos Maidana, Zab Judah, Saul Canelo Alvarez, Danny Garcia and Paulie Malignaggi. Brook is just starting out when it comes to big fights. The Golovkin was Brook’s first big fight, and he lost it after he quit throwing punches in the 5th. It would have been nice if Brook went down swinging rather than him not throwing punches and daring Golovkin to try and hit him, which he was doing repeatedly.
“Don’t believe what you hear from that “[expletive]” I’m pretty sure everyone in the 🌏 knows I want the fight!” said Brook on his Twitter about Khan. “Who da [expletive] is that guy! ✊🏼💦”