Hearn pushing for Khan-Brook fight in June 2016

By Boxing News - 11/13/2015 - Comments

khan777By Scott Gilfoid: Eddie Hearn, the promoter for IBF welterweight belt holder Kell Brook, says he had a recent conversation with Amir Khan (31-3, 19 KOs) about a potential fight between Khan and Brook for mid-2016, and Hearn is starting to feel confident that he can make that fight.

He’s now looking to get the 29-year-old Khan to commit to the fight with Brook so that they can start marketing the fight and preparing for it. Hearn old Khan that Brook is going to be moving up to the junior middleweight division after two more fights so that Brook can look to capture a title in that division.

Hearn didn’t say which title Brook will be looking to snatch, but it doesn’t take a genius to figure that Hearn will target the perceived weakest of the 154lb champions in WBO junior middleweight champion Liam Smith rather than the dangerous champions in Jermall Charlo or Erislandy Lara.

“I had some interesting chats with Amir Khan [last] Saturday, and if he fights in January like I think he might, I think the Brook fight can happen in the Summer,” Hearn said via IFL TV. “I said [to Khan] ‘You’ve got to sit down and look at this fight, mate. How much are you getting for these other fights? You’re not getting enough money, I can pay you 5x that for a Brook fight.”

The thing is a fight between Khan and Brook could make a heck of a lot of money if both fighters would fight some quality guys to make their fight much bigger, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen. Hearn has been taking it easy with Brook for the most part ever since he took over as his promoter in 2011.

YouTube video

Brook has been fighting guys like Jo Jo Dan and Frankie Gavin. There’s no real quality opposition Brook has been getting matched with, and his next opponent is Diego Chaves, a fighter with a 1-2-1 record in his last four fights. Khan is no better as far as his own soft match-making. Since his losses to Lamont Peterson and Danny Garcia, Khan has fought Carlos Molina, Julio Diaz, Luis Collazo, Devon Alexander and Chris Algieri.

Khan had been yapping for the past two years about wanting to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr., but he didn’t have the resume to get the fight. Khan is now trying to get a fight against Manny Pacquiao, but he’s not likely to get that fight either. The thing is Khan could have fought a rematch with Marcos Maidana, and he could have fought guys like Adrien Broner, Shawn Porter, Keith Thurman and Errol Spence, but he’s chosen instead to fight the likes of Collazo, Alexander and Algieri.

“I also said Kell’s only going to have a couple more fights at welterweight before we move up and win a world title at [154]. He [Khan] said ‘Don’t move up, you got to fight me first!’, so I said ‘well make the fight!” Hearn said.

So in other words, Hearn has Khan now fearing that he’ll miss out on his only chance of getting a big payday fight against Brook. Man, I think this is a clear trick on Hearn’s part, because even if Brook did move up to 154, it’s not like he couldn’t move back down in weight to 147 to fight Khan.

Hearn is making it seem like once Brook moves up in weight to 154, he’ll never be able to move back down again. Heck, Brook has basically been a junior middleweight for years now, but he’s been melting down in weight to fight smaller welterweights and enjoy a weight advantage over them. If there was such a thing s rehydration limits in boxing, I think Brook would have been forced to move up to the 154lb division a long, long time ago, because he would have been too heavy for the welterweight division.

“If we’re looking at a May or June fight at Wembley, you can’t just decide that in March,” Hearn said. “These things take planning, it’s a major operation,” he added before going on to say that he will reach out to Khan again to press the issue.”

If I was Khan, I wouldn’t take the Brook fight now. I would make him build up the fight properly by facing some tough welterweights like Tim Bradley, Spence, Danny Garcia, Porter in a rematch, and Thurman. If Brook could beat all of those fighters, then I’d take the fight. If not, then I’d ignore him permanently. Right now, Khan vs. Brook wouldn’t interest the casual boxing fans outside of the UK, because neither fighter has done anything to build up their names. Khan has taken the safe fights since his losses to Garcia and Peterson, and Brook only has that one fight against Porter in his career, and he clinched his way to a controversial win over him in that fight. The rest of the guys that Brook has faced were weak opponents.

“I already offered Khan 5 million dollars to fight Brook, and that was before he was world champion, so think of the money in the pot now,” Hearn said.

I don’t know how well a fight between Khan and Brook would sell in the UK. Hearn would obviously stick the fight on Sky Box Office, and he might even try and stage it at Wembley Stadium. I think the fight wouldn’t do well at all, because Khan has been out of the loop for too long in terms of being relevant. He’s made decent money fighting weak opposition, and he’s been living it up with that money.

I think Khan doesn’t train the way he should, and you can make an argument that he’s on the downside of his career now. Khan’s prime was arguably five years ago in 2010. He doesn’t look like he’s gotten better to me. The way Khan looked against Chris Algieri last April, I think he’s on the slide in terms of his career. Brook hasn’t fought anyone good, thanks to the match-making done for him by Hearn. For that reason, I can’t see a Khan vs. Brook fight doing great numbers on Sky Box Office.



Comments are closed.