By Scott Gilfoid: Nate Jones, an assistant trainer for WBA/WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr (46-0, 26 KOs), says a clash between IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook (33-0, 22 KOs) and Amir Khan (29-3, 19 KOs), should help Brook earn a fight against Mayweather.
Jones says that Brook still has a lot of learning to do before he’s ready to fight against a talent like Mayweather, but if he beats Khan, then he would be ready possibly. Jones says he believes that Khan would beat Brook if/when that fight takes place.
“He [Brook] should fight Amir Khan,” Jones said. “I mean, I don’t think he’s ready for Floyd. He’s got a little bit of learning and growing to do. I’m leaning towards Amir Khan [to beat Brook].“
When asked if he thinks a Khan-Brook fight should determine an opponent for Mayweather, Jones said “Oh yeah, that would be perfect because he’d [Brook] earn his spot to fight Mayweather.”
There are a couple of problems with Brook trying to get the fight against Khan.
First off, Brook’s promoter Eddie Hearn has been hinting that Brook would be the A-side of the equation when it comes to the negotiations with Khan. That obviously isn’t going to work, because I don’t see Khan ever agreeing to take less or even accepting a 50-50 deal.
I could be wrong, but I don’t Khan accepting a 50-50 deal, because he’s clearly better known than Brook in the U.S, and I believe Khan has the bigger overall fan base than Brook by a significant margin. Brook has a title, but so do a lot of paper champions without much of a fan base.
If Khan and Brook do actually fight each other, Brook is going to have all kinds of problems with Khan’s speed, because he’s too slow and mechanical. Brook fights by the numbers, and he’s predictable with what he throws, and punches are easy to track.
The thing that Brook did to beat Shawn Porter this month was to clinch him constantly to shut down his punches on the inside, and hit him on his way in. Brook had a huge size advantage over the 5’6” Porter, so it wasn’t surprising that Brook was able to connect with single shots while Porter was coming inside on him.
All the holding that Brook did on the inside without being penalized allowed him to shut Porter’s offense down. Khan doesn’t fight on the inside, so the tactics that Brook used to beat Porter will be useless against Khan. So it’ll be basically be Khan’s hand speed and outside game versus Brook’s hand speed and outside game. I think this is a slam dunk win for Khan unless he catches something big that he can’t handle, which I doubt.
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