By Scott Gilfoid: #1 WBC Amir Khan believes that IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook is burning through his pro career and wasting it by not fighting the best in the sport. Khan sees Brook as doing little more than using up his pro career fighting weaker record-padding opponents like Kevin Bizier, Jo Jo Dan and Frankie Gavin rather than taking the effort to fight the very best in the sport.

Khan isn’t sure if it’s the soon to be 30-year-old Brook to be blame for his unfulfilled career or if it’s his promoter Eddie Hearn, who has been making the matches for him since he took over as his promoter five years ago. Either way, Khan sees Brook’s career as being totally wasted.

Khan says Brook needs to step up in a major way to fight the best to see where he measures up. Even if Brook gets whipped when he does step up, Khan still thinks Brook would be better off than he is now with him fighting over-matched fighters that aren’t quality opponents at the world level.

In Brook’s last fight last Saturday night, he defeated his IBF mandatory challenger Kevin Bizier (25-3, 17 KOs) in just two rounds. It wasn’t a case of how good Brook was, but rather how bad Bizier was. He looked worse than Brook’s recent over-matched opponents Frankie Gavin and Jo Jo Dan. It’s not surprising though, as Bizier was twice between by Jo Jo Dan. It’s obviously the IBF’s fault for ranking Bizier at Number 1, but Brook could have vacated his IBF title and gone after the bigger names.

At least by vacating his IBF strap, he could save himself from being forced to use up his career fighting the likes of Jo Jo Dan and Bizier. However, the IBF is finally getting their act together with the April 16 IBF 147lb eliminator bout between Errol Spence and Chris Algieri. Spence is expected to win that fight with eased, and after he does win it, he’ll be Brook’s first high quality mandatory opponent. Some boxing fans expect Brook to vacate his IBF title rather than face Spence. I happen to agree with those fans. I hope I’m wrong about Brook, but I don’t think I will be.

“He’s [Brook] a champion and all the back to back mandatories and stuff. It’s at the peak of his career where he needs to have his top fights and fighting big names,” said Khan to FIghthype.com. “Win or lose, why is he afraid to fight those big names, because he thinks he’ll get beat. One reason the fight fans love me because I fight fans love me because I fight guys who I don’t even have to fight. I didn’t have to take this fight against Canelo, but I wanted to give it to the fight fans. I want to give it to the people to show what kind of a fighter I am. I think Kell needs to do the same. I think he needs to show some bigger balls and get some bigger names,” said Khan.

Yes, I agree with Khan. It is pretty sad how Brook is wasting his career with his easy payday fights against the fodder that both his promoter and the International Boxing Federation keep putting him in with. I don’t know what to say. Brook is kind of in a tough situation. He wants to obviously keep his IBF title because I guess it validates him in the minds of some boxing fans, but his promoter Hearn isn’t helping him out either.

When asked about his thoughts on Brook calling out Gennady Golovkin, Khan said “You know, I do not believe that. Look, I can’t believe he’d come up with something stupid. I don’t even want to talk about that. I know he did say he wants to fight him [Golovkin]. You’ve got this guy in cotton wool. You don’t want to put him in a medium hard fight, and you’re saying you’re going to put him in with someone like Golovkin to try and get his career on a high. Fight guys at the top 10 in the world and see where you belong. He’s [Brook] a good fighter, but I just think he’s wasting his career. I think it’s his promoter [Eddie Hearn] maybe. If it’s not Kell Brook, then I think it’s his promoter kind of keeping him waiting, kind of getting him the easy fights because as a fighter, you want to fight the best. If it is Kell, then I think he’s in the wrong sport if he doesn’t want to fight the best,” said Khan.