Khan believes Kell Brook fight could make £100m in future

By Boxing News - 07/23/2015 - Comments

khan777By Scott Gilfoid: Welterweight contender Amir Khan (31-3, 19 KOs) says it’s better to wait to fight IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook (35-0, 24 KOs) in the future after he’s faced the bigger names and become a star than it would be for him to fight him right now and make far less money due to him being a more obscure name in America.

Khan believes that a fight between him and Brook will someday make tremendous money similar to how the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao fight became a huge money maker for both fighters by them waiting six years before fighting each other.

“The fight between Mayweather and Pacquiao generated just under $600 million; now if that fight happened in the first year, it would have never generated that much money,” Khan said to the liverpoolecho.co.uk.

Waiting for the Brook fight only makes sense for someone like Khan if the two fighters are capable of winning all their fights for the next 4 to 6 years in order to make their fight bigger in the future. It also only makes sense if the two of them are willing to stick their necks out by facing the best welterweights in the division like Danny Garcia, Shawn Porter, Marcos Maidana, Keith Thurman, Errol Spence Jr. and Tim Bradley.

It’s very, very doubtful that Khan and Brook will fight any of those names. I know Brook beat Porter last year by using a lot of clinching to stop his inside game, but Brook isn’t about to fight Porter again now that he knows how to deal with fighters that clinch nonstop like Brook did against him. Brook’s promoter Eddie Hearn has already said that a fight against Thurman isn’t in the picture. Hearn hasn’t even mentioned guys like Maidana, Spence or Garcia for Brook. You have to believe that Hearn won’t be risking Brook’s neck in the future by putting him in with any of those guys.

While the match-making that Hearn is doing for Brook will undoubtedly keep him unbeaten for years to come, it will also keep him from becoming a big enough star for a fight between him and Khan to become the huge money maker that Khan thinks it will be. I mean, Brook isn’t going to become a star in the United States by beating the likes of Frankie Gavin, Jo Jo Dan, Vyacheslav Senchenko, Chris Van Heerden, Brandon Rios, or Leonard Bundu.

If Hearn keeps matching Brook against weak opposition, like he’s a European welterweight champion rather than the IBF welterweight title holder, Brook will never become a star in America. He’ll just be seen as a protected paper champion by a lot of boxing fans.

“Boxing is a business and it’s not about getting the fight done with two young guys. The fight is not worth the money at the minute. Why make it a £5-10m fight when we could make it for £100m,” Khan said.

Oh my, it looks like Khan is dreaming. I wonder if we should wake him up by throwing a bucket of water over his head to shake him back to his senses.

Khan is really kidding himself if he truly believes a fight between him and Brook will someday bring in £100m. There’s no chance that Khan can make that kind of money in the UK fighting Brook, and given the way both fighters are facing largely weaker opposition in the welterweight division, I can’t see either of them rising to stardom in the UK for them to make pay-per-view money from their fight in the distant future.

With the kind of match-making that’s being done for Khan and Brook right now, I see them as only capable of being shown on either free TV or on one of the premium cable channels like non-pay-per-view Showtime. If they try to make Khan-Brook a pay-per-view fight in America, I really can’t see anyone paying for the fight. The only way that changes in the distant future is if both guys stop being matched against the lesser welterweights, and start being put in with the very best.

Given past events, I don’t see that happening. Brook’s promoter Eddie Hearn isn’t even talking about wanting to match Brook against the best. Khan’s adviser likely will continue to match him against weak punchers until he gets the lottery winning fight that he wants against Floyd Mayweather Jr., which means he’ll likely be pitted against weak punchers for the remainder of his career because it doesn’t look like Mayweather will ever throw Khan a bone by giving him a fight.

“I’m a big name globally. Kell Brook could walk past people in America and they wouldn’t recognize him,” Khan said. “When it does happen, Kell and Eddie will be happy because I made the right choice at the right time.”

Khan isn’t a big name in America either. If were a big name, he’d be a pay-per-view attraction, and he’s not at that level.

The best thing that Khan and Brook could do is to start facing the top caliber welterweights and take the risks needed for them to get to the next level. If they want to be PPV stars in America, then that means they need to face guys like Errol Spence, Shawn Porter, Marcos Maidana, Tim Bradley, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, Gennady Golovkin and Keith Thurman.



Comments are closed.