By Scott Gilfoid: Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn has some interesting thoughts on the Manny Pacquiao vs. Amir Khan and Kell Brook vs. Errol Spence fights. First off, Hearn continues to doubt that Pacquiao-Khan will come off on April 23 like it’s been talked about. Hearn DOES NOT believe the Pacquiao vs. Khan fight will take place, because he says he’s hearing from his sources that it won’t be taking place.
Hearn isn’t saying who his sources are, so it could be anyone just flapping their gums without inside knowledge of the situation.
Hearn is still bellyaching about Khan having turned down his fighter IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook when he offered the fight to him. Hearn is now moaning about Brook having to defend against his mandatory challenger, the unbeaten Spence (21-0, 18 KOs), who the International Boxing Federation ordered him to fight.
Obviously, if Khan had accepted Hearn’s offer for the Brook fight, it would let the “Special One” off the hook as far as having to fight the unbeaten Spence. Hearn says it’s “no problem” that Brook is fighting Spence, because it’ll give him the opportunity to prove he’s the number 1 welterweight in the division. But the fat that Hearn is still squawking about Brook having to take the Spence fight instead of Khan, it suggests that he’s not entirely happy about. As such, Hearn comes across as having a sour grapes type attitude in this interview about the Pacquiao-Khan and Brook-Spence fights.
“I don’t think it’s going to happen,” said Hearn to Fighthype.com about the Pacquiao vs. Khan fight. “The people I’ve talked to say the fights not going to happen. You have to remember that the whole setup is disjointed at the moment. You’ve got Michael Koncz going and doing his thing, and you’ve got Bob Arum. I think Arum is saying to Koncz, ‘Go on, go and get the money from Dubai. Koncz might go and get the money from Dubai, but I don’t believe this. It’s seven weeks out on Saturday [from April 23 date for Pacquiao’s scheduled next fight]. It’s not like I’m saying, ‘I hope you don’t get it.’ He was right to turn down the [Kell] Brook fight. It’s a better style fight [against Pacquiao] than Kell Brook. He can fight Kell Brook after, and that’s what he’s thinking. It’s like fight Kell Brook, get beat, finished. Fight Manny Pacquiao, get beat, fight Kell Brook. It’s like, ‘How many more paydays I can get of this game.’ He turned down the Kell Brook fight because he said, ‘I need a warm-up fight for my hand,’ and then he goes and fights Manny Pacquiao. It’s seven weeks out. So we had to do what we had to do, which is fight Errol Spence, and in my opinion become the proven No.1 welterweight in the world doing it. No problem. He’ll do it. It’s a dangerous fight,” said Hearn.
Oh my, doesn’t Hearn sound bitter about Brook not getting the Khan? I mean, I don’t see why it should be a big deal for Hearn that Brook now has to fight Spence instead of Khan. Hearn has been yapping 24/7 about how he thinks Brook is the best fighter in the welterweight division. Now it’s Brook’s BIG chance for him to prove it by beating the next Mayweather in Errol Spence. Surely, Brook can do that, can’t he? If he’s really the best fighter at 147, as Hearn has been blabbering about, then he should be able to take care of Spence with no problems. Of course, if Hearn doesn’t actually believe that Brook is the No.1 guy in the welterweight division, then he’s going to have some big time problems on May 20 when he faces the unbeaten Spence.
I don’t agree with Hearn about why Khan turned down the Brook fight. From my understanding, Khan turned down the Brook fight because he said he wanted to fight for the IBF welterweight title. Khan said it himself; he wants Brook’s IBF 147 lb. title on the line when/if he fights him. The IBF title obviously would no longer be in Brook’s possession if he veers around the Spence fight to face Khan.
The IBF would strip Brook of his title for avoiding the Spence fight, which they ordered him to fight NEXT. When you have a champion that decides, for whatever reason, that he doesn’t want to comply with a sanctioning bodies orders for him to fight a particular fighter, then they often will strip that fighter of his title. Khan said that he wanted Brook’s IBF title to be on the line when he fights him. As such, Brook HAD TO fight Spence next rather than Khan. In the meantime, Manny Pacquiao offered Khan a fight.
With Pacquiao about to retire, of course Khan wasn’t going to turn the fight down. This would be a chance of a life time type of fight. I’m sure if Brook was about to retire from boxing, Khan would fight him too, but he’s not. Hearn can come up with his own reasons for why he believes that Khan chose the Pacquiao fight instead of the Khan fight, but I think he’s missing the point. He’s being obtuse. Khan wants to fight for Brook’s IBF title, and the only way that can happen is if Brook runs the gauntlet through a fight against Errol Spence Jr. on May 20.
If Brook gets out of that fight in one piece as the victor, then we could be talking about a big fight between him and Khan. But if Brook gets whipped royally by Spence and loses his IBF title, then he’s going to need to hit the reset button on his boxing career. Yeah, Hearn might have some crocodile tears over Brook’s loss to Spence, but it’s all good as long as his surgically repaired right eye holds up on him.
Assuming Brook has a setback with his eye, then he could be dealing with some downtime with his career. Who knows how long it might take Brook to finish licking his wounds from the Spence fight before he’s ready to get back inside the ring again? Khan certainly isn’t going to hang out for the better part of 2017 just waiting for Brook to recover from his injuries from the Spence fight. Khan needs to keep his boxing career moving forward.
