Arum hasn’t heard back from Khan regarding Crawford fight

By Boxing News - 12/05/2018 - Comments

Image: Arum hasn't heard back from Khan regarding Crawford fight

By Tim Royner: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum is saying that he still hasn’t heard back from Amir Khan about an offer they made him to face WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford next. Khan (33-4, 20 KOs) was supposedly interested in fighting the 31-year-old Crawford next, but his actions speak otherwise.

Arum told Thaboxingvoice that he’s not heard anything from Khan, who is said to have received a $5 million offer to fight Crawford on March 23 on ESPN pay-per-view.

Khan sounds like he’s still interested in fighting Brook, but Kell’s reluctance to agree to the weight clause for the fight is keeping him from getting the deal done. Brook doesn’t want to agree to the 10 lb rehydration clause that Khan wants for the fight. If Brook doesn’t agree to it, then there’s no fight. Khan likes the idea of fighting Crawford for world-wide recognition as opposed to fight Brook and only getting the attention of British boxing fans.

“If Brook doesn’t happen because of the weight then it doesn’t happen,” Khan said to thesun.co.uk.

Khan might still take the fight with Brook from the looks of it, but the weight clause is going to need to be in the contract language for the match to get done. Brook seems like he believes he’ll eventually get his way if he stalls long enough, but that may not happen. Brook says if the Khan fight doesn’t happen, he’ll go after the big names at welterweight. Brook has apparently given up on the idea of fighting junior middleweights for some reason. He didn’t even try and fight any of the talented guys at 154 after moving up in weight earlier this year in March.

Brook’s only fight at junior middleweight was against fringe contender Sergey Rabchenko, who he stopped in three rounds. This Saturday, December 8, Brook will be fighting 2nd tier fighter Michael Zerafa (25-2, 14 KOs) at the Sheffield Arena in Sheffield, England. Zerafa is on the same par as Rabchenko, but perhaps a rung down in talent. Khan says he doesn’t know why Brook is fighting such poor opposition. He thinks it might be the fault of their mutual promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Sport.

“Kell has to win on Saturday or it will just kill the fight if he doesn’t,” Khan said. “He should win though, he’s fighting a stripper! He’s a male stripper. He definitely needs to up his game.”

Khan could be making a mistake in fighting Crawford though. The money he’ll make in fighting Crawford is good, but it’s likely going to have a bad result for Khan. He says he likes the idea of beating Crawford to become a pound-for-pound attraction, but it’s so unlikely that he’ll be able to do that. The odds are high that Khan loses to Crawford by knockout, and that in turn will result in fewer boxing fans want to see a Khan-Brook fight in 2019.

It seems obvious to the boxing fans that Khan needs to take the Brook fight now for the big money he can make. Khan and Brook are both too vulnerable to fight any of the top fighters at 147. If they were younger, it might be worth it to fight other guys, but both are getting long in the tooth, and can’t afford to suffer losses at this point in their careers.

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