By Scott Gilfoid: WBA super middleweight champion Carl Froch, who recently vacated his IBF 168 pound title rather than fight James DeGale, thinks that Amir Khan (30-1, 19 KOs) should agree to fight IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook (34-0, 23 KOs) this year.
Froch thinks it would be a huge fight, and he sees no reason why Khan shouldn’t be looking to make that right now. Froch suspects that Khan isn’t taking the fight with Brook due to his punching power. Froch thinks it would be a 50-50 fight if Khan and Brook were to face each other, but he also doesn’t see the fight happening.
Last Saturday night, Brook successfully defended his IBF welterweight title for the first time in beating his mandatory challenger Jo Jo Dan (34-3, 18 KOs) by a 4th round TKO.
“Eddie Hearn called it on for Khan and there’s no reason why Amir Khan shouldn’t come to England and fight Kell Brook,” Froch said via Skysports.com. “I think Khan thinks he’s too big for Kell Brook and fair play to him, he’s been around on the scene for a while and he’s fighting in Vegas and Amir Khan thinks he’s a big shot.”
I think it’s a different story for Khan. He’s just looking to get a bigger money fight than what he would get against Brook. There’s shame in Khan trying to get the biggest money fight he can while he still can. We aren’t exactly seeing Hearn take risks with Brook by matching him against the always dangerous WBA welterweight champion Keith Thurman, or by putting him in with knockout artist Marcos Maidana.
Since Hearn isn’t taking any chances with Brook, then why is such a big deal that Khan is also playing it safe by steering himself around the tougher contests until he gets a big cash out fight against Mayweather or Pacquiao? I mean, I’m not sure if Khan’s ploy will work for him to get a fight against one or both of those superstars, because at the end of the day they may both choose not to fight Khan due to him not having faced any dangerous opponents for the past three years since he was knocked out in the 4th round by Danny Garcia in 2012.
“But Kell Brook is the world champion, Amir Khan’s got no title,” Froch said. “If he thinks he can beat Brook then come over here and try and take his world title off him. I think Amir Khan is worried by that punch – on his whiskers like Kell said! I think that’s a fantastic fight that should happen – but probably won’t. Amir Khan should come and fight Kell Brook.”
There’s no question that the Khan-Brook fight will take place in the future, but like I said, I think Khan is waiting to get bigger fights against Mayweather and Pacquiao. Khan sees Brook as someone who is trailing far behind him despite the fact that he was able to capture a paper title with his narrow/controversial victory over Shawn Porter last year.
Other that one fight, Brook hasn’t faced any top fighters, and he seems to be routinely matched against guys that are less than spectacular fighters. Look at the guys that Brook has faced in the last two years and you tell me if they’re big enough names for him to get the big fights: Jo Jo Dan, Shawn Porter, Alvaro Robles, Vyacheslav Senchenko, and Carson Jones.
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