By Scott Gilfoid: Amir Khan will be holding a press conference on Wednesday at 12:00 p.m. at the Dorchester Hotel, Mayfair, in London, England, and he’s expected to reveal that he’s signed with British promoter Eddie Hearn and his Matchroom Sport stable.
By the 31-year-old Khan signing with Hearn, he can face former IBF welterweight champion Kell ‘Special K’ Brook for a big money fight in 2018 in the UK. Khan signing with Hearn be a cash out move on his part. Khan will likely get the fight with Brook in 2018, make a lot of money, and then fight on a little while longer before hanging up his gloves.
With Khan inking with Eddie Hearn, it gives the promoter 2 faded fighters at 147 and 154. You’ve got Khan and Kell Brook. Hearn is going to need to try and sign some younger new blood like Errol Spence Jr. if he wants someone that compete at the highest levels at 147 and eventually 154 for years to come. Khan and Brook are pretty much at the end of their careers. Brook might be done after his next fight with Sergey Rabchenko, although I doubt he’ll retire even if he loses that match-up.
Khan’s tune-up fight in March or April will be in the UK. Adrien Broner has been rumored to be a possibility, but that’s unlikely to happen. Broner is not a tune-up level guy obviously, especially for someone coming off of a 2-year layoff like Khan. There’s speculation that Khan will fight 32-year-old Frankie Gavin (25-3, 15 KOs) for his tune-up fight. Gavin is well known in the UK, and he’s not a big puncher. Gavin has suffered 3 defeats in the last 4 years to Sam Eggington, Kell brook and Leonard Bundu. Khan should be able to beat Gavin without any problems. Gavin has won his last 2 fights against Renald Garrido and Felix Matamoros, but he looked very average in both of those matches.
Both fighters are arguably over-the-hill at this point, but they’re still popular in the UK. Brook has suffered back to back stoppage losses to Gennady Golovkin and Errol Spence Jr. in his last 2 fights. Both fights resulted in Brook experiencing bad eye injuries. Brook (36-2, 25 KOs) is moving up to the junior middleweight division for his next fight, and taking on a very dangerous puncher Sergey Rabchenko (29-2, 22 KOs) on March 3 at the Sheffield Arena, in Sheffield, UK. There’s no telling what will happen in that fight. If Brook loses that fight, it might not be worth it for Khan to face him. How do you sell a fight between Khan and Brook under the dark cloud of 3 straight losses for ‘Special K’? I’m sure that won’t stop Hearn from making the Khan-Brook fight, but it would be just dreadful to see. As a promoter, how do you sell the Khan vs. Brook fight at that point?
It’s too bad Khan didn’t sign with Matchroom in 2015, before he was knocked out by former WBC middleweight champion Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez in 2016. The Khan vs. Brook fight would have had a lot more meaning back then. Brook’s career has done downhill with since 2016 with him losing to middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin in September of that year. In Brook’s follow-up fight last May against Errol Spence Jr., he was stopped in the 11th round.
The 31-year-old Khan’s situation is bad because he was knocked out by Canelo in May 2016, and then he hasn’t fought since then. Khan has been doing a lot of traveling, dealing with marriage issues, and taking part in the ITV program, ‘I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here.’ Khan seems more like a retired fighter than an active one. It was a mistake on Khan’s part to sit outside of the ring for nearly 2 years after his loss to Canelo. Before Khan’s loss to Canelo, his career was already slowing down. Khan had just 1 fight in 2015 with him struggling to beat Chris Algieri by a 12 round unanimous decision. Before that, Khan had 4 tune-up level fights against Devon Alexander, Luis Collazo, Julio Diaz and Carlos Molina. Some boxing fans will say that Alexander and Collazo are good fighters. They’re decent fighters, but they’re not considered the cream of the crop at 147. You can’t throw Alexander and Collazo into the ring with Shawn Porter or Errol Spence and expect them to excel. Khan beat 4 consecutive faded fighters in Diaz, Collazo, Alexander and Algieri. When Khan stepped up a level to fight Canelo, he was knocked out cold in 2016. Khan is now coming off of a 2-year layoff to resume his boxing career, and he’s signing with Eddie Hearn. Obviously, Khan is looking to cash out by fighting Kell Brook. It’s a given.
It’s smart for Khan to take the money for the Brook fight now while it’s still there for him. The fight is no longer what it once was, but there are probably a lot of casual boxing fans in the UK still willing to pay their hard-earned money in purchasing the Khan-Brook fight on Sky Box Office pay-per-view at this point.
It doesn’t matter that the Khan vs. Brook fight is no longer a fight between relevant fighters. There’s still a lot of boxing fans that will pay to see it. I’m not sure that HBO or Showtime would be interested in purchasing a Khan vs. Brook fight for the states. You never know though. Look at the fights HBO put on in 2017. You had Miguel Cotto vs. Yoshihiro Kamegai, Cotto vs. Sadam Ali, and Daniel Jacobs vs. Luis Arias. Khan vs. Brook is right up the same alley as those fights.