By Charles Brun: Amir Khan says he wants to fight Kell Brook in 2021 and “put him in his place.” The timing for Khan wanting to face former IBF 147-pound champion Brook (39-3, 27 KOs) isn’t ideal, considering he’s 34 now, looking shot, and coming off a 4th round knockout loss to Terence Crawford last month.
Khan isn’t saying what weight he’ll be facing Brook (39-3, 27 KOs), but he’ll likely insist on them fighting at 147. As we saw in the Crawford fight, Brook is ineffective at 147 now, and he needs to be at 154 at the least for him to be 100%.
The UK fans wanted to see Khan face Brook since 2005, but sadly, there was zero interest from Amir’s side. Most people would agree, it’s a little late now for the Khan vs. Brook fight to take place.
But as we saw in the recent exhibition match between 50+ fighters Mike Tyson and Roy Jones Jr, you can never say never. There are enough long-time boxing fans that remember how good Brook and Khan were in their prime to still want to see them battle, even though the fight is long past it’s sell-by-date.
Khan wants to shut Brook up in 2021
“I think with Kell Brook, who has always been running his mouth, I think put him in his place now. I think it is about time now to put him in his place and shut him up for good,” Khan said the Khaleej Times.
Both fighters are past their best career-wise and no longer relevant in the sport. Khan is going to look like he’s taking advantage of Brook no longer being the fighter he used to be.
Indeed, Crawford hurt Brook with a short right hook that looked no more powerful than a jab. Some boxing fans believe that Brook’s punch resistance was impaired because he dropped weight to get down to the 147-pound limit to challenge Crawford for his WBO welterweight title.
Although Brook was given a title shot by WBO welterweight Crawford on November 14th, he’d done nothing to deserve the fight. Crawford’s promoters at Top Rank selected Brook as his opponent due to his name recognition and past accomplishments many years ago.
Brook’s imploded four years ago when he moved up to middleweight to challenge IBF/IBO/WBC 160-lb champion Gennadiy Golovkin in September 201, and he was stopped in five rounds. Brook suffered an eye injury in the loss to GGG, and his career has never been the same since
The former IBF/WBA light-welterweight champion Khan (34-5, 21 KOs) just turned 34-years-old on December 8th, and he hasn’t fought in a year and a half since beating former IBF featherweight champion Billy Dib by a fourth-round knockout on July 12th, 2019 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Amir plans to fight in March or April
“I want to fight again around March or April, and there are so many names out there, there are so many deals on the table, in the Middle East as well. So, let’s see how that plays out, said Khan.
It sounds like Khan wants to get a fight under his belt in early 2021 before he looks to face Brook. Of course, you can’t rule out a fight between the two former British stars in the first quarter of 2021 if there’s a large money offer from the Middle East to stage it there.
Khan hasn’t fought in a long time, but that probably won’t matter. If he gets Brook to agree to boil down to 147, he’ll have a good chance of beating him. The shot that hurt Brook in his loss to Crawford was a weak hook, which Khan is quite capable of duplicating.
Many boxing fans have wondered whether Khan would ever fight again, seeing that he’s been out of the ring for a long duration. Moreover, Khan hasn’t fought against a serious opponent since his sixth-round stoppage loss to Crawford in April 2019.
It’s interesting to note that Khan did better against Crawford than Brook did, but the situation was a lot different. Brook has been competing at 154 since 2018, and he had no business fighting Crawford without a catchweight. Asking Brook to boil down to 147 at this point in his career put him at the mercy of Crawford.
You can bet that Khan will look to use his A-side status to force Brook to come down to 147 for him to fight him. It’s predictable that Khan will insist on Brook coming all the way down to 147 as a condition for him to get the fight.
Retirement not in Khan’s plans yet
“No, no, the gloves are still on,” Khan said about him potentially retiring from boxing.
“I’m thinking of fighting probably next year. This year was a bit of a bad year for everybody.
“And boxing was off. They wanted to fight behind closed doors. I didn’t really feel like I could motivate myself, but hopefully, if it opens up next year, we can make something happen,” said Khan.
Well, Khan is going to need to be selective in who he faces for his next fight if he wants to make sure that he can face Brook in a big-money match in 2021.
Khan didn’t look good in beating fringe welterweight contender Samuel Vargas by a 12 round unanimous decision in 2018. Vargas dropped Khan in the third round and gave him problems throughout the contest with his heavy shots.
Khan should take it easy for his first fight back because he’s been out of the ring for a long time. If he faces someone a little too good, he could get knocked out, especially if the match is fought a 147.
Khan vs. Brook will make a lot of money for both fighters, and help feather their retirement nests. Brook will likely grab this fight with both hands if Khan is serious about wanting to fight him in 2021.
It would be a bad idea on Khan’s part to continue to delay the fight with Brook, as the younger fans aren’t going to be interested in this match if it’s pushed far into the future. Khan would have made more money if he fought Brook before he suffered an eye injury against Golovkin.