By Scott Gilfoid: Despite Amir Khan letting IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook know that if he wants a fight against him, he’ll need to agree to a 70-30 cut of the loot for a proposed fight in May, Brook hasn’t given up on the fight. He still wants/needs the fight. It looks bad that Brook won’t get the hint that Khan is giving him and move on.
Brook is just too needy. He needs to show Khan that he’s capable of fighting other top talents like Errol Spence. Even if Brook gets blasted out by Spence, he’ll at least show Khan that he’s willing to fight a talented welterweight for a change.
Brook fought a lot of weak fighters since he won the IBF title. The Khan-Brook negotiations fell apart this week after the two sides were too far apart in what they want for the purse split. Brook wants a 50-50 split of the revenue, and Khan wants 70-30. Brook figures that he’s the A-side in the promotion due to him being the IBF 147lb champion, and him having recently fought Gennady Golovkin.
Brook thinks he only lost the fight due to him suffering a broken eye socket. Brook’s IBF title will be gone if he fights Khan though, because he’s been ordered by the International Boxing Federation to fight Errol Spence Jr. next. If Brook opts not to fight Spence, then he’ll be stripped of his IBF title. Brook is a champion only for the negotiations with Khan, but not for the fight. Brook will be just a contender and not a champion if he fights Khan next. The IBF isn’t going to let Brook keep his IBF title if he chooses not to fight Spence next.
“Just to make the fight happen and get it across the line, I’m willing to bend on some of his demands,: said Brook to skysports.com. “I’m willing to bend slightly, even though I’ve never lost as a welterweight. I’ve only lost to [Gennady] Golovkin on a broken eye socket,” said Brook.
I think Brook is being a little disingenuous when he says he only lost to Golovkin because of him suffering a broken eye socket. It was clear from round 1 that Brook didn’t have the punching power to compete with Golovkin. Brook couldn’t stand his ground for any length of time because of Golovkin’s withering fire. I must admit that Brook did a good job of making Golovkin miss with a lot of his head shots. Golovkin was focusing too much on throwing to the head, and not enough in throwing body shots. Brook wasn’t able to block or dodge the body shots. That’s why in the 5th, Brook stopped throwing punches after he was hit with a hard right hand to the body. The right hand that Golovkin landed to the midsection of Brook caused him to stop fighting back. Brook stopped fighting back due to him getting hurt by a body shot rather than his broken eye socket being the reason.
Unless Brook is willing to bend all the way to the 70-30 cut that Khan wants, I don’t see him getting the fight. Bending a little isn’t going to do the job, especially with Brook about to lose his IBF title if he chooses not to fight Spence.