By Scott Gilfoid: Amir Khan (31-4, 19 KOs) says he’s interested in fighting IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook (36-1, 25 KOs) in March or April 2017 for tune-up purposes to get him ready for fighting the winner of the March fight between WBC champion Danny Garcia and WBA champ Keith “One Time” Thurman.
This news could be bad for unbeaten #1 IBF Errol Spence Jr., who was hoping to fight Brook in the first quarter of 2017 for his IBF title. If Brook takes a fight against Khan, he will have to vacate his IBF title, because he’s been ordered by the IBF to defend his title next against Spence.
The only way that Brook can steer around the Spence fight is if he faces one of the other welterweight champions in a unification fight. That’s not likely to happen. With the kind of money that Brook can make fighting Khan in a non-title fight, he might not mind too much having to vacate his IBF title in order to take that fight. It would give Brook a career high payday if he can fight Khan in March or April.
Khan said this to Fighthub.com about a fight against Brook in March or April:
”That fight between me and him can happen,” said Khan about a fight against Brook in March or April. “I don’t mind having that as a tune-up fight, the Kell Brook fight before I go into the big fights.”
It’s funny how Khan calls Brook a tune-up fight for him. Khan saw Brook’s recent fight against middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin last September, and he felt that the fight was a mismatch from the 1st round. Unlike the three judges that worked the fight that had either Brook ahead of even at two rounds a piece after four rounds, Khan saw Golovkin winning every round of that fight. To Khan, the Golovkin-Brook fight was a total mismatch.
Khan then compared it to his recent fight against former WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, which he lost by a 6th round knockout. Khan said that he was ahead at the time of the stoppage in the 6th. Two of the judges had Khan losing the fight by the scores of 49-46, 48-47, while the third had Khan ahead 48-47. I had Khan winning 4 rounds to 1 going into the 6th.
Khan was definitely doing a number on Canelo through five rounds. Unfortunately for Khan, he got tired and got careless in the 6th. This enabled the much heavier looking Canelo to knock him out with a right hand that had him completely out cold. I’m not sure how much Canelo outweighed Khan by at the night of the fight, as Canelo wasn’t weighed by the HBO crew that covered the fight. My guess is Canelo had at least a 15 pound weight advantage, maybe a little more.
Whether the recently turned 30-year-old Khan is serious or not about wanting to take the Brook fight in March or April is the big question. You can bet that Brook’s promoter Eddie Hearn is going to be looking to speak with Khan to verify if he’s really interested in the fight. Hearn has wanted to put together the Brook vs. Khan fight since he first started promoting Brook five years ago.
Having the excuse to steer Brook away from almost certain knockout loss to Errol Spence Jr. would be great for Hearn, because it would help lengthen Brook’s career potentially. It would also help him keep making money. If Khan is serious about taking the fight against Brook, then Hearn can have him vacate his IBF title and face Khan. Before Hearn does that though, I think he’ll likely speak with the IBF to see if they’ll give Brook an exception to sidestep the Spence fight in favor of voluntary defense against Khan, who isn’t currently ranked in the IBF’s top 15 rankings at 147.
When asked when he plans on fighting again, Khan said, “March or April. My fight against Canelo was a little different from Triple G and Brook had, because Triple G was all over him from the 1st round. With me, I was winning the fight [against Saul Canelo Alvarez]. I was up. I was winning the fight. That fight [Golovkin vs. Brook] was a mismatch. Kell Brook shouldn’t have been in the ring with someone like Golovkin. Golovkin was at a different level. I think once Kell moves up to the next level, he’s always going to get beat.”
It makes all the sense in the world for Khan to take the fight with Brook right now rather than waiting until later to take the fight. At least if Khan fights Brook right now, he’ll get the huge payday that the fight will provide from PPV sales on Sky Box Office. It’s a big fight in the UK. If Khan were to fight the winner of the March unification fight between Danny Garcia and Keith Thurman, he might lose and lose badly by another knockout. As such, it’s smarter for Khan to take on Brook now and call it a tune-up than it would be for him to wait on the winner of the Garcia-Thurman fight.
The way I see it, both Khan and Brook are drinking in the last chance saloon right now at 147. I don’t see either of them going anywhere at this point in their careers at welterweight. If Brook faces Spence, he’s going to get knocked out. The same thing if Brook fights the winner of the Garcia vs. Thurman fight or WBO champion Manny Pacquiao. I think Khan loses to all of them as well. That’s why it’s better for Khan and Brook to fight each other in March or April in order to make the money possible while it’s still on the table. It might not be there if they lose their next fights to Spence and the Thurman-Garcia winner.
“I’m going to move back down to 147 for my next fight,” said Khan. “I should be able to fight the winner of [Keith] Thurman-[Danny] Garcia. I’ll be back in March. So maybe my March fight will be a tune-up, and then go straight into a big fight at the end of the year against one of the winners. I’m leaning more for Garcia. I’m hoping Garcia wins that fight so I can get my rematch with him and settle the score,” said Khan.
