By Dean Berman: Kell Brook is looking to fight on the undercard of Anthony Joshua vs Andy Ruiz Jr rematch on December 7th, and then face Amir Khan in the first half of 2020. The former IBF welterweight champion Brook (38-2, 26 KOs) has already started training for the December 7th card, which will be taking place in Saudi Arabia on Sky Box Office.
Brook says he’s a promotional free agent now, but he’s still going to be working with Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn to try and put together the Khan fight.
Kell Brook has other options if Khan fight doesn’t take place
Brook says he’s also interested in facing the winner of this Saturday’s welterweight unification fight between IBF champion Errol Spence Jr. and WBC champ Shawn Porter. Even though Brook has already fought both guys, he would still like to fight the winner of the contest. There would be a lot of interest from the boxing world as a whole in Brook fighting the winner of that match.
In contrast, Brook vs. Khan is a fight that is more regional in terms of just UK fans being interested in that contest. Brook says he’d also like to fight Danny Garcia and Keith Thurman. If Brook strikes out in landing the Khan and Spence-Porter winner fights, then Thurman, Danny Garcia or Mikey Garcia are all potential options for him to fight in 2020.
Kell still doesn’t have an opponent for December 7th
Brook, 33, doesn’t have an opponent yet, but it won’t be difficult to find one. He makes it clear that he doesn’t want to fight an elite level opponent, because it’ll have been 12 months since he last fought by the time he takes part on that December 7th card.
“It will be a year by the time I get in, so I don’t want an elite fight, but I want a good fight just to dip my feet back in the water,” said Brook to skysports.com about the December 7th card. “I want to fight December, [then] February or March. It would be ideal for us to fight then.”
Brook will be fighting in a showcase level contest on December 7th, meaning he’ll be fighting someone over-matched. Unfortunately for Brook, that’s par for the course for him since last year. Brook stopped fighting quality opposition after losing consecutive fights to Gennady Golovkin and Errol Spence Jr. in 2016/2017. He suffered eye injuries in both fights. In Brook’s last two fights, he’s beaten Siarhei Rabchanka and Michael Zerafa in tune-up level matches.
His last bout was against Zerafa in December 2018. Kell has somehow not been able to find his way back to the ring since the Zerafa. Although Brook expressed interest in challenging WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford, nothing came of that.
Brook wants Spence vs. Porter winner
“I think we’re both at the stage in our careers where we can lock horns and get it on,” said Brook about Khan. “And I hope so. I believe it can happen. The fans need to see this fight. I’m a free agent, I’m not under any contract. So, my team is talking to other people. [Shawn] Porter and [Errol] Spence are fighting this week. I’ve been in with both of them. I’d love to fight the winner of that. There’s [Danny] Garcia, [Keith] Thurman, and [Terence] Crawford. I went over to try and make that fight when Khan boxed him.
“There’s that fight there. I’m just happy to be back in the gym, getting fit, losing weight. There’s much more of me to give to the fans. I’m back in the [Dominic] Ingle gym training with all the champions. I’ve always been the man of the gym, the top man in the gym, and now we’ve got Billy Joe [Saunders], and we’ve got Liam Williams. We’ve got all these fighters that want to be top of the gym. So we’re all pushing each other,” said Brook.
Brook can’t count on the top dogs wanting to fight him
This might be a bit much to ask for Brook to attempt to get the winner of the Spence vs. Porter fight. Those guys want to fight Manny Pacquiao, Danny Garcia, Keith Thurman and Terence Crawford. They want to fight relevant fighter that have been staying with their respective careers. Brook has hurt his career since his losses to Spence and Gennady Golovkin by not fighting the best, and being inactive.
It was a mistake for Brook to fight GGG in the first place in 2016, but he got a big payday in the fight. What turned out to be the real mistake in Brook’s career was using 2018 to fight tune-ups instead of the top guys at 147, and then wasting all of 2019 by not fighting. That was a blunder on Brook’s part.
Kell will be ready to fight in December
“I would like it to be in Sheffield, but I do like to see other parts of the world,” said Brook about his next fight, said Brook about fighting in Saudi Arabia. “I’d like to be able to travel wherever the big fights are. I’ve fought in Sheffield many times, but I’d like to try someplace else. We could do,” said Brook when asked if he’ll fight on the Joshua vs. Ruiz rematch card on December 7th in Saudi Arabia.
“I’ll be ready to fight at the end of November. Come December time, I’ll be at the peak of my training. I’d like to get on that card,” said Brook.
It’ll be good for Brook to get some visibility in fighting on the Joshua-Ruiz card on December 7 in Saudi Arabia, but it won’t mean much if he faces a stiff. Brook didn’t gain much attention from his mismatches against Zerafa and Rabchenko last year. If anything, Brook came out of the Zerafa fight badly damaged due to the way the looked during that fight.
Brook struggled to beat Zerafa, and fought poorly. The weight class was all wrong for Brook, as he’s not big enough to fight at 154, and he was taking on a younger fighter in Zerafa. For Brook’s next fight, he should look to face someone ranked in the top 10 at 147 in order for him to get the attention of the boxing public. He’s not going to get credit if Hearn matched him against another lower level fighter.
