Kell Brook: Khan will eventually be forced to fight me

By Boxing News - 03/29/2015 - Comments

SHEFFIELD-BROOK-DANN3(Photo Credit: Lawrence Lustig) By Scott Gilfoid: Having no luck in getting Amir Khan (30-3, 19 KOs) to commit to a fight against him, IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook (34-0, 23 KOs) is now saying that the 28-year-old Khan will eventually be forced into facing him due to the boxing public demanding the Khan-Brook fight. I’m not sure when that’ll be.

With the guys that Brook’s promoter Eddie Hearn has been matching him up against, I really don’t know if we’re going to see the boxing public demand the Khan-Brook fight in mass due to there being much better fights for both of them.

Brook doesn’t bring much in the U.S, because he doesn’t have a fan base over there. As such, the U.S public certainly isn’t demanding a Khan-Brook fight. In fact, I doubt that anyone really cares about that fight in the U.S.

The U.S boxing public isn’t demanding a fight for them against anyone, least of all Floyd Mayweather Jr and Manny Pacquiao. Brook and Khan are still too unknown for the U.S fans to care whether they fight each other or anyone else. For the fans to start caring, Brook and Khan are going to need to start fighting opposition that the casual boxing fans have heard of.

Sorry, Jo Jo Dan isn’t someone that the casual fans have heard of in the U.S, and neither is Khan’s recent opponents. Khan and Brook need to start taking some risks with their careers by facing quality guys like Keith Thurman, Marcos Maidana and Adrien Broner, and they need to fight without clinching 24/7. It’s kind of hard to win fans if you’re going to be grabbing, shoving and holding.

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“It’s just a matter of time before he’s [Khan] forced into that fight because of the public demand and we see him on the canvas again,” Brook said via Skysports.com. “I’m giving him an opportunity because there’s a world title belt on the line, and there’s going to be a lot of money there for him, probably the most he’s earned in a fight.”

I hope Brook isn’t holding his breath waiting for the boxing public to start pushing for a Khan-Brook fight, because I don’t see it happening in 2015, and I really doubt that the fans will give a fig in 2016 either.

Brook’s promoter Eddie Hearn is talking about wanting to match him against Brandon Rios or Juan Manuel Marquez. Those fights aren’t going to do anything for Brook. Marquez will be turning 42 in August, and he hasn’t fought since last year in May. He’s got a bad knee, and he hasn’t looked good since he knocked out Manny Pacquiao three long years ago in 2012.

Brook defeated little known Jo Jo Dan (34-3, 18 KOs) last Saturday night by a 4th round knockout at the Motorpoint Arena in Sheffield. This was a mandatory defense for Brook, but it was more like an easy tune-up due to how horrible Dan looked. The IBF made Dan the IBF mandatory for Brook, but they made themselves look bad in the process by ranking a guy who looked little more than a C level fighter. It looks bad when sanctioning bodies give guys a high ranking when they don’t have the talent to compete with the top fighters. In this case, the IBF ranked Jo Jo Dan at No.1 above fighters like Amir Khan, Tim Bradley, Diego Chaves, Shawn Porter, Devon Alexander and Devon Alexander. The IBF did Jo Jo Dan no favors with the high ranking, and they made themselves look bad, because Dan didn’t look at all prepared for the fight. He wasn’t ready for such a huge step up in class from the soft opposition he’d been facing his entire career.



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