By Scott Gilfoid: Asif Vali, the manager for Amir Khan, says he thinks IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook should do the right thing by defending his title against his mandatory challenger Errol Spence Jr. Brook and his promoter Eddie Hearn are thinking of what to do about the Spence situation.
Hearn says that Brook isn’t afraid of Spence. It’s just that he’s having such a hard time making the 147lb limit. That excuse would work if Brook wasn’t so eager to come down to 147 to fight Khan, Manny Pacquiao, Danny Garcia or Keith Thurman.
With Brook picking and choosing which fights he is willing to fight as the IBF champion, it makes it look like he’s either lost his nerve or he’s gotten lazy as a champion. When you have a job, you’ve got to do what’s required of the task. Brook can’t just pick and choose what fighters he wants to fight. It doesn’t work like that.
Vali thinks that Brook would be taking the easy way out if he vacates his IBF title and moves up to 154 to avoid the Spence fight. He doesn’t want Brook to do that, and you can understand why. Khan-Brook is a bigger fight if Brook beats Spence before they fight. It would give Brook a big scalp to add to his collection, and only his second important win in his entire 13-year career. Brook has only beaten one good fighter in his career and that was Shawn Porter, who he held nonstop in every round to keep Porter from throwing punches.
It wasn’t fighting. It was holding, and so awful to look at. If Brook fights Spence, he’ll have to do a heck of a lot more than hold if he wants to win that fight. If that’s all Brook has in the cupboard is a plan for 12 rounds of nonstop holding, then I don’t think it’s going to work for him.
Vali says that if Brook wants the fight against Khan right now, then he’ll offer him the biggest guaranteed purse of his career. All Brook needs to do is agree to the fight terms.
Vali said this to IFL TV about Khan, Brook and Spence:
“It’s not about the [purse] split. It’s about whether both fighters are happy with what they’re going to get,” said Vali. “They’ve got a mandatory with Errol Spence, and that’s a very, very tough fight. He’s [Brook] either going to walk away from being a champion at 147, which I think is wrong, because Amir has fought plenty of his mandatories in the past at 147. If Kell Brook thinks he’s the best at 147, then he can go and fight his mandatory at 147 instead of moving up to 154. I think moving up to 154 is an easy option to walk away and say I’m no longer a champion, but I’m going to try another division.”
I hate to say it, but Vali and Khan have Brook literally over a barrel in the negotiations. With Brook wanting/needing the Khan fight so desperately right now, he’s going to be in really bad shape if he can’t get the fight. What happens if Brook can’t get the Khan fight is he either fights Spence and likely gets knocked out or he vacates his IBF title and moves up to 154, and looks like he’s running from the talented American fighter.
Brook’s IBF title likely helped him get the big payday against middleweight Gennady Golovkin last September, but I think it’s going to hurt him now with Spence beaming down on him. It would be a courageous move on Brook’s part for him to fight Spence, but I don’t think that would change the outcome of the fight. Spence still knocks Brook out, even if he tries to game the fight by using nonstop holding or running.
Spence is very strong on the inside, and he’ll batter Brook’s midsection to pieces if he tries to clinch over 10 times per round. If Brook runs like he did against Golovkin, then Spence will cut off the ring on him and go straight for his midsection, which is clearly his weak spot. Brook likes to move his head to avoid head shots, and he’s very good at being elusive. However, Brook is terrible at avoiding body shots. He gets hit to the body and there’s not a thing he can do about it other than run.
“Right now, the spit doesn’t work for us,” said Vali about the 50-50 split that Brook wants for the Khan fight. “It might do in 12 months’ time, but is that fight big enough in 12 months’ time? For Kell Brook and Eddie’s point of view, they need to understand if they want it and are hungry for it, then forget about percentages and be happy for what you get. You’ve got to look at what you’re getting and not the man across the road. We can’t wait for Kell. We have Amir in November, which is very likely to happen and that’s history making. If Kell wants the highest purse he’s ever hard, we’re happy to offer him a guarantee of the best purse ever in his boxing career. It’s more so than he got in his last fight. We’re happy to make him a guarantee of the biggest number he’s ever hard. We’re happy to do that.”
“Our risk is far greater,” said Vali about Khan. “If he wants the fight, then he needs to be rewarded a little bit more than Kell Brook. If Kell thinks he’s going to win it, if he beats Amir, then he’ll be a big superstar. If Amir Khan beats Kell, he’s still Amir Khan. People are going to say that he beat Kell Brook because he has weight issues.”
Speaking about Brook’s fight against Spence, “He’s going to make one-fifth of what he can earn in a fight against Amir Khan, so which one does he want to go for? A big risky fight against Errol Spence, a hard hitter, who in my eyes beats Kell Brook or does he want to earn his best career purse against Amir Khan, which is a 50-50 fight.”