By Scott Gilfoid: Amir Khan has once again made it perfectly clear that he wants Kell Brook (36-1, 25 KOs) to do the right thing by facing his mandatory challenger Errol Spence Jr. (21-0, 18 KOs) as ordered by the International Boxing Federation in order to keep his IBF welterweight title.
There’s a lot of speculation going on with fans believing that Brook will vacate his IBF title any day now to avoid fighting Spence. Brook would have everything to lose facing Spence, who is viewed as the next superstar in the sport.
Floyd Mayweather Jr. said this week that he sees Spence eventually facing Saul Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford for the No.1 pound-for-pound spot. Mayweather didn’t mention Kell Brook as fighting either of those guys. In other words, Mayweather recognizes Spence’s huge talent. Brook is seen as a guy by a lot of people with a padded resume, as his different promoters kept the training wheels on him for pretty much most of his career with the exception of his fights against Gennady Golovkin and Shawn Porter.
Khan wants to fight Brook for his IBF title later this year. He sees a fight between them to have more meaning if Brook still is in possession of his IBF belt. If Brook just goes into the Khan fight without a world title and having vacated it to avoid a talented fighter in Spence, it’s going to take away a lot of the meaning in that match.
“The fight between me and him will be worth even more if there is a world title on the line,” Khan said to Talksport. “I want him to keep hold of that IBF title because I want to take it off him. I have always said to Kell and Eddie Hearn that the fight is going to be worth more money if there is a title on the line.”
What can Brook and his promoter Eddie Hearn do? They’re in negotiations with Manny Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum for a potential Pacquiao-Brook fight in 2017, as well as a fight against Khan. Brook can fight three times in 2017 and make boatloads of sweet cash. But here’s the problem: If Brook beats Spence, he could be trounced by him and have the living daylights beaten out of him. If/when that happens, Brook can say goodbye to the Khan and Pacquiao fighs, because they’re not going to want to fight someone that was blown out of the water by Spence.
I seriously doubt that either of them will want any part of Spence. I don’t see that kind of bravery exhibited by Khan or Pacquiao. I think Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum will forget all about the idea of putting him in a fight against Brook, and will instead steer Pacquiao towards one of his own fighters like Vasyl Lomachenko or Terence Crawford.
“I want to fight again March or April time. I should find out within the next month,” said Khan.
Khan, 30, doesn’t plan on fighting Brook until later in the year, so it would be in his best interest to take the risky fight against Spence for better or worse. I’m just saying. If Brook doesn’t have the talent to beat Spence, as was the case in his last fight against Gennady “GGG” Golovkin, then it would be wise for the boxing fans to find out now rather than later.
Speaking of Golovkin, he has this to say about his fight against Brook in speaking to The Breakfast Club 105.1:
“He’s finished after five rounds,” said Golovkin about Brook in their fight on September last year. “He’s not ready for decision fight. He’s not ready for true fight. He beat me in a couple of rounds. It’s nothing. It’s not a big fight. I respect Kell. He’s a good fighter. We have different boxing career, different power, and different size. Maybe not size. We’re the same size, and different situation. I’m true middleweight. He’s light welterweight [Brook is a large welterweight],” said Golovkin.
Brook was stopped in the 5th round after his trainer threw in the towel when Golovkin started hammering him unmercifully after getting him against the ropes. It was a timely stoppage, as Brook was staggering after the fight was stopped. He was taunting Golovkin as the fight ended by holding out his hands, as if to say, ‘You can’t hit me.’ The problem was, Golovkin was hitting Brook quite a bit, and he was nailing him at will with nothing coming back. Some of Golovkin’s shots were missing, but it didn’t matter. The ones that were landing were doing a lot of damage to Brook. I hope that if Brook fights Spence, he doesn’t do the same thing by sitting against the ropes trying to taunt him as he’s getting blasted apart by the talented welterweight.
Brook suffered a busted right eye socket in the Golovkin fight. Spence is a dangerous opponent for someone coming off of an eye injury. For that reason alone, I wouldn’t blame Brook if he vacated his IBF title. At the very least, it would give Brook a good excuse to tell the boxing media for why he vacated his title. I don’t know if too many fans will buy the excuse, but at least Brook will have a decent excuse.
Brook and Khan need to fight each other now, because both of them are about to become no longer relevant at welterweight in my view. They’re both still young at 30, but they might as well be 40, because the 147lb division has suddenly improved with talents like Spence and Thurman. There’s really no place for Brook and Khan with those guys around. I hate to say it, but I don’t think Brook and Khan can hang with those types of talents.