By Scott Gilfoid: Eddie Hearn states that the only way the Amir Khan vs. Kell Brook can take place is if it happens at 147 pounds, because Khan won’t agree to move up to 150 or 154 to make it happen. Hearn says Brook (37-2, 26 KOs) can make the welterweight limit. Brook is more than willing to melt down from his current weight class of 154 in order to face Khan at his desired weight a 147. Book is going to have to come down to 147 if he wants the fight.
Hearn’s excitement about the Khan-Brook fight doesn’t match the UK and worldwide boxing public’s interest in it. The fans see Brook and Khan as fighters that are finished. Hearn seems to be stuck in a time warp, thinking like it’s 2011 still when the two fighters were in their primes and doing well with their respective careers. Things are much different. At best, Khan is a gatekeeper at welterweight, and not a top five guy. Brook isn’t even top five at 154. He’s had just one fight since moving up to junior middleweight in defeating fringe contender Sergey Rabchenko. Brook can’t be counted on to defeat any of these fighters at 154: Jermell Charlo, Jarrett Hurd, Erislandy Lara, Jaime Munguia, Julian Williams or Erickson Lubin.
Hearn wants to make the Khan-Brook fight in December. However, Manny Pacquiao could step in to face Khan instead of an outside country comes up with enough money to pay the Filipino star his asking price for the fight. Hearn says that Pacquiao won’t take the fight in the U.S, and he doesn’t think there’s enough money for Pacquiao if I takes place in the UK. Hearn says an outside country would need to step in and make a huge offer to stage the Khan-Pacquiao fight there, just like they did with Pacquiao’s recent fight against Lucas Matthysse, which took place in Malaysia. Whatever outside country that comes a long to give Pacquiao what he wants for a fight against Khan, they’re going to need to pay him a lot of money because he likely won’t take it unless he gets a substantial payday. Pacquiao is not going to get that money from the U.S, because Pacquiao-Khan isn’t a PPV worthy fight and neither is Khan-Brook.
Brook would obviously like to have Khan move up to 154 to face him, but that has little chance of happening. Brook is the B-side in the equation, so he has little choice but to melt down to 147 if he wants to fight Khan. Brook isn’t popular enough with the boxing public to make Khan do anything. If Brook wants the fight with Khan, then he needs to stuck bellyaching and face him at 147 as soon as he gives him the signal that he’s ready.
”I think that fight has to take place at 147,” Hearn said to Tha Boxing Voice. ”I don’t think Amir Khan would take the fight at 150. He would want it at 147, and I think Kell Brook would take it at 147, because he wants that fight. If that’s the concession he has to give and he can make 147, but it’s hard, hard work. I don’t like him at 147, but when he went to 154, he said, ‘you know I can make 147.’ In the Errol Spence fight, he didn’t have a good camp, but he made weight. There are two problems: number one is the 10 pound rule, the next day with the IBF. He would have to struggle to make 147. He couldn’t even rehydrate the way he wanted to. I think it’s a disadvantage to him at 147. I also think he’s not huge at 154. I do think that’s his weight class. I think Brook is really strong at 154. Amir says about Kell Brook, ‘It’s got to be at 147. I’m not going to move my weight class for him,’” Hearn said.
Brook can still make 147 for the right fight like a match against Khan. With Khan’s history of knockouts, I don’t think it would matter if Brook is a little weight drained. He’ll still have more than enough punching power to defeat Khan if he can land his shots.
Hearn forgets to point out that it wasn’t just Brook that had to go through a lot of hard work to get down to 147 pounds for his fight against Errol Spence Jr. last year in May. It was also Spence that had to struggle to make weight. Both guys weight around the same when they would rehydrate for their fights at welterweight. Hearn seems to be suggesting that Brook’s lost to Spence because he had to take to
take off so much weight to get down to the 147 pound limit.
”You’re dealing with two people that don’t like each other,” Hearn said about Khan and Brook. ”I keep saying to both of them, ‘Guys, this is the biggest payday for the both of you.’ F—k the payday. I want to see it as a fan. It’s such a 50-50 fight. Anything can happen in the fight. Don’t let that fight pass you buy. This fight we’ve been talking about for four years. I think they’re close to their primes still, so let’s do it now. Let’s not let someone get beat again. They both have come back with greats wins [Phil Lo Greco and Sergey Rabchenko]. Khan boxes [Samuel] Vargas on September the 8th in Birmingham. Let’s see him get a good win,” Hearn said.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the Khan-Brook fight doesn’t bring in huge money like Hearn believes it will. He maintains that the Khan vs. Brook fight will see the two fighters get a career high payday. I don’t know if the British boxing public is going to want to purchase the Brook vs. Khan fight in high numbers on Sky Box Office. Khan vs. Brook is not a 50-50 fight as Hearn says it is. It’s a fight that clearly favors Brook.
Khan has a tune-up fight against Samuel Vargas on September 8. The fight is a mismatch in favor of Khan.
”Let’s get it made in December, but also Khan wants Pacquiao,” Hearn said. ”He’d like to look at the Pacquiao fight as well. I spoke to Pacquiao’s people. They want a huge amount of money. For me, the Pacquiao fight can only take place outside of the UK with an investor being a tourism body from a country. We don’t do that in the UK. They say, ‘Go make your money off the gate.’ A lot of countries will pay a lot of money to bring Pacquiao-Khan there. What Pacquiao wants, I’m not sure that’s going to be possible to do that in the UK. It’s difficult for us to come up with the bucks from DAZN if it’s not in the U.S. They want it in America. I think it would be a coup for us to get Pacquiao, but we’ve got to overpay. We will overpay. As the platform [DAZN] becomes more substantial, more powerful, more recognized, just like the PBC [Premier Boxing Champions], the money and the offers will come down,” Hearn said.
If Khan can get the fight against Manny Pacquiao, he’ll obviously look to face him later this year after he beats Samuel Vargas on September 8. Khan badly wants the Pacquiao fight. Khan isn’t as excited about facing Brook.
