Hatton thinks Khan needs better preparation for Kell Brook

By Boxing News - 01/29/2016 - Comments

hatton64By Scott Gilfoid: If Ricky Hatton had it his way, Amir Khan (31-3, 19 KOs) would have more preparation before he climbs into the ring to face IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook (35-0, 24 KOs) for a unification fight.

Hatton thinks the timing is bad for the 29-year-old Khan right now to be taking on Brook, given the fact that Khan fought only once in 2013 and 2015, and hasn’t fought since May of last year. All total, Khan has fought four times in the last three years, period. Heck, that’s like one year’s worth of fighting for someone like Deontay Wilder.

Khan has been waiting on big money fights against Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao that never materialized. All that waiting around has caused Khan to miss out on a lot of fight opportunities. If he fights Brook in the summer on June 4 at Wembley Stadium in London, UK, Brook will have the upper hand in the ring because he’s been the busier fighter in the last three years.

Granted, Brook has been fighting some truly gawd awful opposition, but he’s still be busy. Brook has had long training camps for all of those fights, and he hasn’t been jetting around the world back and forth the way Khan has been doing. Khan has arguably been living more like a tourist in the last few years than a fighter.

“Amir is a bit of a pal of mine and if that fight does come off, he hasn’t had the best preparation,” Hatton said to skysports.com. “Amir – if the Kell Brook fight does materialize – has not fought for a while which is not the greatest preparation going into a fight such as that. He has waited for Mayweather, he has waited for Pacquiao. It has not happened and Kell has been busy and fighting and improving.”

Hatton has right. Khan would be making a big mistake if he were to fight Brook now without him fighting two of three soft jobs to get tuned up for a fight of that nature. If Khan really wants to fight Brook, then he should fight a couple of times in the next three months to get ready for the fight. Khan could then fight Brook in November or December.

YouTube video

If I were Khan, I would try and get three tune-up bouts in before I fought Brook. If Khan could roll over three bottom feeders in the top 15 of the welterweight division, he would likely be more than ready to face Brook by the end of 2016. Even if Khan were to face a light welterweight contender, I still think it would be adequate preparation to get him ready for Brook. Khan definitely needs at least three good tune-ups before he faces Brook in my view.

Of course, if Khan is just looking for that one big payday fight against Brook and he doesn’t care whether he wins or not, then by all means he should take the fight in June like Brook and his promoter Eddie Hearn are hoping for. If money is the only thing that matters to Khan, then he should take the fight with Brook in June. However, if Khan wants to win the fight, then he needs to fight three times and get the rust out so he’ll be truly ready for the Brook fight.

“I think Amir needs to be fighting more regularly,” Hatton said. “He just doesn’t fight. Kell Brook, even though I’m sure he’ll want the Khan fight, if the Khan fight doesn’t come off he is making defences and he’s keeping busy. A busy fighter is always better. It’s all about timing. At the minute, the timing for Amir is certainly not ideal, is it?”

The timing is terrible for Khan to be taking on Brook. Khan last fought in May of 2016, and he looked dreadful against a mediocre fighter in Chris Algieri. Khan was walked own all night long by Algieri, who was able to pressure him and get the better of him in many rounds. I still think Khan legitimately won the fight, but it was definitely close.

The thing is it made Khan look bad because Algieri had recently been trounced by Manny Pacquiao by a lopsided decision in their fight in November 2014 in Macau, China. It looked bad for Khan to be struggling to beat a limited fighter like Algieri. Instead of staying busy after the Algieri fight, Khan started jetting around the world and going to all kinds of different places. It gave me the impression that Khan was a retired fighter because he wasn’t in the ring and he was just traveling instead of working on his craft.



Comments are closed.