By Allan Fox: IBF welterweight champion Errol ‘The Truth’ Spence Jr. (23-0, 20 KOs) was amused and surprised to hear how Amir ‘King’ Khan (32-4, 20 KOs) called him out recently. Khan, 31, made his successful comeback last weekend in stopping Phil Lo Greco (28-4, 15 KOs) in the 1st round following a 2-year absence from the ring.
Khan is all over the place now, saying he wants to fight for world titles, and take on his UK nemesis Kell ‘Special One’ Brook (37-2, 26 KOs) in a stadium fight. Spence thinks Khan is off his rocker, and needs to take the Brook fight rather than face him. Spence almost sounds like he doesn’t want to mess up Khan’s chance for a huge payday against Brook. If Spence were to agree to fight Khan, he would likely knock him out within 6 rounds. If Khan loses to Spence, then the interest in a fight between him and Brook would drop off.
Spence says Brook, 31, hits hard and he favors him to defeat Khan if that fight takes place at 154. However, Khan has already said that if a fight takes place between them, it’ll be at 147. If Brook has to boil down from 154 to fight Khan, then he might not be strong enough to win if the fight goes into the second half. Spence stopped Brook in the 11th round last May in a fight that took place at 147 at Bramall Lane in Sheffield, England. Brook fought well for the first 5 rounds, but then he gassed out and was worn down until he quit on one knee in round 11. But for the first 5 rounds, Brook gave Spence a great deal of problems. If Brook is able to be strong for the first five rounds against Khan, the chances are high that he’d knock him out.
”I know he called me out. That’s crazy man,” Spence said to Fighthub about Khan. “Khan needs to fight Kell Brook. I wouldn’t go to the UK to fight Amir Khan. Khan needs to stay in the UK and fight there. Kell can punch,” Spence said.
A lot of people are making a big deal about how Khan was able to knockout Phil Lo Greco faster than Spence did in stopping him in the 3rd round in 2015. The fans think that because Khan knocked Lo Greco out in the 1st round last Saturday, it means that he could beat Spence. However, Lo Greco was younger in 2015, and he also went 10 rounds in a losing effort with Shawn Porter in 2013. There are few boxing fans that believe that Khan would beat Porter if the fight were to get made. Khan fought Lo Greco at the right moment of his career with him faded, older and shopworn.
Spence wants Khan to fight Brook, but for some reason he doesn’t want to. Brook and promoter Eddie Hearn have been asking Khan for the fight for a long time, and he’s ignored them and taken on lesser guys for smaller paydays against Luis Collazo, Julio Diaz, Carlos Molina, Devon Alexander, Chris Algieri and Phil Lo Greco. The general belief is that Khan doesn’t fancy his chances of beating Brook, so he keeps putting him off. It’s probably too hard of a thing for Khan to bear in thinking about him possibility losing to Brook. We saw the same thing in the early 2000s with Ricky Hatton not facing the crafty Junior Witter. Hatton just ignored Witter, even though it would have made him a ton of money had he taken it. Both fighters eventually deteriorated from age until it was pointless for them to face each other.
Some boxing fans are now going to think that Spence is ducking Khan by not agreeing to fight him, and by saying that he won’t come to the UK to fight him. I don’t think that’s the case though. Spence seems to be looking out for Khan’s best interest by saying he should take the big money match against Brook, because that fight will give him a career high payday. It doesn’t matter that Brook has already been beaten by Gennady Golovkin and Spence. The UK boxing fans would fill the huge 80,000 seat Wembley Stadium in London, England to see the Khan vs. Brook fight. The fight would do well now just with ticket sales, but also on Sky Box Office PPV. Khan and Brook are both from the UK, so the British boxing fans would naturally prefer to see those two than they would in seeing Khan take on Spence. Brook gave Spence some problems last year, but ultimately he wilted when the American started increasing the pace of the fight in the 5th and 6th rounds. Once Spence started landing heavy shots to the body of Brook, the whole complexion of the fight turned around and it became a rout.
Spence’s next fight will be against his IBF welterweight mandatory challenger Carlos Ocampo (22-0, 13 KOs). The fight was announced last Saturday night on Showtime. Spence will be defending against Ocampo on June 16 in Dallas, Texas. It’s not a great match-up, but Spence has little choice in the matter due to the International Boxing Federation ordering the contest.
“It kind of messed up his legacy now,” Spence said about Saul Canelo Alvarez testing positive for clenbuterol. “You’ve got Amir Khan coming out, and Alfredo Angulo coming out sand said, ‘Was he on that tainted meat when I fought,’ and Khan said it too,” Spence said.
Spence says he think Saul Canelo Alvarez has messed up his legacy with his recent two positive tests for clenbuterol. Spence had said in the past that he’d like to fight Canelo. If Canelo beats Gennady Golovkin in their rematch on September 15, Spence might want to think about calling him out, because it’s unlikely that the red-haired Mexican star’s promoters at Golden Boy Promotions are going to want to risk his neck by putting him in with the lions like Jermall Charlo, Daniel Jacobs or Sergiy Derevyanchenko. Those guys are young still and Canelo can’t wait them out like he did with Golovkin in waiting until he was 35 before fighting him. Canelo can’t wait out Charlo, Jacobs and Derevyanchenko.
