By Charles Brun: After being chased for 16 years as a pro by Kell Brook to get a fight, Amir Khan is finally showing interest in facing ‘Special One.’ Is it too late for Khan to be FINALLY showing interest in fighting Brook or is there’s still a chance?
Unfortunately for the former IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Khan (34-5, 21 KOs), he’s been told by Eddie Hearn that the 34-year-old Brook isn’t interested right now in the fight.
That’s not to say that Khan won’t be able to get Kell to change his mind eventually about fighting him, but it’s going to take some doing.
Khan, 34, doesn’t understand why Brook doesn’t want the fight, but you can’t blame him. For years and years, Brook has been jabbering almost nonstop about wanting to fight Khan, but he’s had zero luck.
Khan has never shown interest in taking the fight, and it’s very similar to how Junior Witter chased Ricky Hatton for a fight throughout their careers. Hatton never wanted the fight with Witter, which would have been a bad style match-up for him.
“What other option is there for Kell Brook to make a good payday and fight someone with a big name like myself?” said Khan to Talksport. “Unless he fights someone with a world title or in America.
“So I’m scratching my head, man, I’m thinking like, ‘What’s he going through?’ said Khan.
“What’s going on with Kell Brook? How come he doesn’t want the fight? Let’s make it happen.”
There’s been talk of Brook fighting one of the top junior middleweights like Liam Smith, but it’s hard to imagine him turning down a Khan fight for that match.
Who knows what Brook (39-3, 27 KOs) has in mind for him to be turning down a fight against Khan. It could be that Brook is fed up with the game-playing with Khan and has decided on not having anything to do with the shot 2004 Olympic silver medalist.
Brook doesn’t have many great options for fights at 147 or 154 that would bring in the kind of money he enjoyed fighting Gennadiy Golovkin and Terence Crawford.
For Brook to be turning down a fight against Khan, it’s got to be something decent on the table for him, unless he’s sulking and holding a grudge because he’s been ignored all these years.
These are likely the only options for Brook:
- Jessie Vargas
- Liam Smith
- Jarrett Hurd
- Anthony Fowler
- Jeff Horn
- Josh Kelly
Brook can probably beat Vargas, Horn, Fowler, and Kelly without any problems because those guys are a middle-of-the-road type of fighter. The money Brook would make fighting them would still likely be less than what he’d get fighting Khan.
The 17-year professional Brook is coming off a fourth-round knockout loss to WBO 147-lb champion Terence Crawford on November 14th last year.
Brook looked good for the first three rounds, but then things fell apart suddenly for him in the fourth when he was hurt by a weak right hook from Crawford.
From there, Brook seemed to lose his composure entirely, turning his back to Crawford in a sign of surrender. Seeing that, the referee had no choice but to halt the fight. You can’t blame the defeat on Brook being weight drained because he looked good in the first three rounds.
It was more of a case of him getting hit with a shot that he wasn’t expecting. What’s unclear is whether Brook’s punch resistance is shot at 34? If so, Khan would likely have more than enough power to do what Crawford did to Brook.
At this point, there’s scant interest from the British boxing public in seeing an old timer’s fight between Khan and former 34-year-old IBF welterweight champion Brook.
Both fighters are considered over-the-hill at this stage in their careers, and both were recently knocked out by WBO 147-lb champion Terence Crawford. Khan’s career has been in the dumpster since his consecutive losses to Lamont Peterson in 2011 and Danny Garcia in 2012.
It’s hard to believe those fights took place a decade ago, as Khan never reversed course with his career after those losses.
He reacted weirdly after losing those fights, choosing to take tune-ups for a solid four years until moving up to middleweight for a money fight against Canelo Alvarez in 2016, which ended badly for Khan with him getting knocked cold in the sixth round.
“The only two fights out there for me are Kell Brook or Manny Pacquiao,” said Khan. “I get either fight, and I call it a day. The prediction for me and Kell Brook? I knock out Kell Brook in under six rounds.”