By Scott Gilfoid: Former IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (30-3, 19 KOs) says his May 30th fight against former WBO 140 pound champion Chris Algieri (20-1, 8 KOs) still has yet to be confirmed, according to Fighthype.com.
Khan, 28, doesn’t understand the huge amount of criticism he’s received from boxing fans ever since he made the news announcement that he’d be facing the 31-year-old Algieri next rather than someone arguably better with better power than Algieri has.
At the end of the day, Khan doesn’t make his fights. That job is done by his adviser. He offers suggestions for opponents, but it’s his management that make the ultimate decision. Even if he wanted to fight Brook next, it would still be a decision left up to his management. Boxing fans don’t realize this, and they see it as a case of Khan dodging particular opponents such as Kell Brook, Marcos Maidana, Keith Thurman, Lucas Matthysse and Danny Garcia.
“The fight with Algieri is not confirmed yet,” Khan said via Fighthype.com. Even if it was, I can’t believe the people who are talking [expletive]. At the end of the day, I did say that I want to fight the top guys. Obviously I can’t fight Floyd or Manny, so Miguel Cotto was another guy I wanted, but he’s going on to fight someone else. Broner said he’d fight me, so I said let’s do it, but I heard that Broner don’t want it either.”
The fight that the boxing fans overwhelmingly want to see is Khan vs. IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook, but Khan chose not to take that fight for several reasons. One, Brook is still unproven due to him having faced largely unknown opposition with limited talent during his career. His only good opponent he’s faced, Shawn Porter, resulted in a fight that was more of a 50-50 fight than a clear win for Brook, according to Khan. Two, the date that Brook’s promoter Eddie Hearn offered Khan for the Brook fight on June 13th conflicted with Khan’s schedule for Ramadan. Three, Khan is looking to get big money fights against Floyd Mayweather Jr and Manny Pacquiao in the near future. Fighting Brook doesn’t compared to that obviously.
Khan went on to say that he thinks that Brook and Hearn are just trying to use his name to get attention in the boxing world. By mentioning his name, fans suddenly show interest in Brook. Khan feels that instead of name dropping his name, Brook should turn around and start facing some high quality opposition.
Brook could be back in the ring on May 30th. One of the possible opponents is Frankie Gavin, a fighter that is with Hearn’s Matchroom Sport stable. That’s obviously not the big a step up for Brook from his last fight against Jo Jo Dan. In fact, you can make an argument that it’s a step down in class because Gavin was recently beaten by Leonard Bundu. Since that loss, Gavin has won three straight fights against weak 2nd tier opposition. Gavin is tentatively scheduled to fight on May 9th against Chris van Heerden.
Khan is right about Brook being unproven as a fighter. Khan would be doing Brook a huge favor in fighting him right now or even next year because Brook doesn’t have the name on his resume that Khan has. The fight between them would be much bigger with a lot more money on the line if Brook would run the same gauntlet that Khan did by fighting Maidana, Danny Garcia, Lamont Peterson, Luis Collazo and Julio Diaz. If Brook could fight guys like Keith Thurman, Erislandy Lara and Demetrius Andrade, it would make him a much more viable opponent for Khan. I mention junior middleweights because Brook is pretty much a 154 pounder in my view. He balloons up after he rehydrates, and he has to melt down to get to the 147 pound division. He’s a big welterweight who arguably should be fighting at junior middleweight. Since Brook is essentially a junior middleweight fighting smaller guys at welterweight, he should be open to fighting junior middleweights like Lara, Andrade, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and the Charlo brothers. Fighting those guys would increase Brook’s popularity to the point where a fight against Khan would be huge. I could see it making the same kind of cash that the Carl Froch vs. George Groves fights made. Of course, Brook would actually have to beat those top guys for a fight against Khan to be a big money fight.
Khan should steer clear of Brook until Brook makes a name for himself because if Khan takes that fight now rather than later, he’ll be selling himself short. It’s a fight that needs to marinate for a while, and Khan should only take it if Brook finally starts facing quality guys rather than the soft opposition that he’s been feasting on for most of his 11-year pro career.
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