Hearn hoping to make Khan vs. Brook in 2020

By Boxing News - 09/18/2019 - Comments

By Charles Brun: Eddie Hearn is going to give it another try to put together the British clash between middling welterweight talents Amir Khan and Kell Brook in early 2020. The persistent promoter Hearn hasn’t given up on making the Khan-Brook fight, and he believes still interest from boxing fans in the UK in seeing them. Hearn is stubbornly sticking it out, trying to put together the Khan-Brook fight, even though the fans have already forgotten this match-up years ago.

Brook wants to fight in December, but that might be too soon for Khan, 32, to face him.

Khan just made a bundle of money for an easy mismatch against Billy Dib. Getting back in the ring to face Brook would be hard work for Khan.

Khan could be an obstacle to making Brook fight

What could hold things up for Hearn is Khan (34-5, 21 KOs) still wanting and hoping he can land a fight against superstar Manny Pacquiao. Khan has been pushing hard for the match against the 40-year-old Filipino star Pacquiao as of late, and he might be willing to sit on the shelf to see if he can get the fight. But even if Khan doesn’t, he can make easy money fighting lesser fighters pose no threat to him. We just saw Khan involved in a mismatch against super featherweight Billy Dib last July in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

“I will tell them: ‘Guys, spring 2020, let’s do it,'” said Hearn to skysports.com about Khan and Brook. “Hopefully we can get it over the line. I still want to make that fight. I’ll give it one more roll of the dice.”

Khan and Brook both coming off poor performances

Brook hasn’t fought since last December when he beat junior middleweight Michael Zerafa by a 12 round unanimous decision, Hearn made it clear on the night that he wanted to put the Khan-Brook fight together in early 2019, but Khan hasn’t gone along with the problem. He chose to ignore the Brook fight, and challenge WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford last April. With Khan taking punishment from Crawford, his trainer Virgil Hunter pulled him out of the fight after he suffered a low blow.

Here’s Brook and Hearn after the Zerafa fight talking about Khan:

YouTube video

 

Brook, 33, has recently been trying to get a fight against Crawford, but with no luck. It’s unclear why Crawford’s promoters at Top Rank haven’t pulled the trigger on the Brook fight, because they’re not matching him against good opposition. Since moving up to welterweight, Crawford has fought Jose Benavidez, Jeff Horn and Khan. Those are three middle of the road level fighters, and nowhere close to the elite level guys are at 147.

Kell Brook wants Crawford fight

“We want to fight Crawford,” Brook said on Twitter. “These are the level of fights that get me excited and I’d only ever want to bow out on a high. If these big fights can be made, then I’d love nothing more than to dance again under those bright lights.”

Brook doesn’t seem to be all that interested in fighting the top junior middleweights for some reason. Perhaps the hard time Brook had in beating Zerafa gave him second thoughts about the wisdom in fighting in this division. Whatever the case is, Brook has been inactive for the entire year, and his career is at a standstill. He’s still not retired, but his inactivity puts him in the same place.