Kell Brook complaining about 10 lb rehydration clause for Khan fight

Boxingnews24.com

By Tim Royner: Former IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook says he’s not agreed to Amir Khan’s request for him to agree to a 10 pound rehydration clause for their fight in early 2019, and he sees that as a weak move to try and drain him.

Khan-Brook has lost a lot of the significance now that the two of them are no longer world champions. They should probably hold off on a fight between them until one or both of them wins a world title. Just when that happens is hard to say. Khan missed out on his best chance to capture a world title when he failed to take on vulnerable champion Lucas Matthysse when he was the WBA ‘regular’ welterweight champion. Manny Pacquiao got to Matthysse first and dethroned him last July in stopping him in the 7th round. Pacquiao is now the new vulnerable champion at 147, but he’s not showing interest in fighting Khan or Brook. At 154, Brook’s only chance of winning a world title is against WBO champion Jaime Munguia, but that fight isn’t going to be easy to make because Munguia’s management at Zanfer Promotions likely aren’t going to want to let the young 22-year-old fighter take on a seasoned pro like Kell.

Brook (37-2, 26 KOs) think that the boxing public will apply pressure to Khan (33-4, 20 KOs) to eventually force him to take the fight with him. Unfortunately for Brook, Khan still has a lot of options for paydays against the likes of Manny Pacquiao and the other top welterweights. Brook says he thinks that his promoter Eddie Hearn will let him face Pacquiao before he lets Khan have that fight. What Brook may not understand is that Pacquiao isn’t going to fight either of them until after he’s faced Floyd Mayweather Jr. next year. In the meantime, Khan and Brook are going to need to wait.

“Everyone in the world knows why he’s doing this at 147,” Brook said to Behind The Gloves about Khan asking him to come down to welterweight to face him at 147 in January or February. “He said he sparred with me many years ago and had to use one hand to destroy me. I’m a very easy opponent for him. He wants me to go down to 147. He wants to only put on 10 pounds, even though there’s no world title on the line,”

It doesn’t matter that a world title won’t be on the line for the Khan vs. Brook fight. Khan, 31, can still require that Brook agree to come down to 147 for him to make the fight with him. Khan had a bad experience fighting at 155 when he challenged Saul Canelo Alvarez for his WBC title two years ago in 2016. He’s not going to try that move again because it’s too risky.

“The bottom line he’s a little b—h,” Brook said about Khan. “He’s going to have to take the fight because the world is looking at him and saying, ‘What are you talking about, Amir? You say do this, do that.’ He’s making it sound like I’ve agreed to these terms for the 10 lb thing. Why would I agree to that? It’s a joke. He’s robbing the British people. He’s robbing the fans of the fight they all want,” Brook said.

Brook, 32, can either agree to Khan’s request of the 147 pound limit with a 10 lb rehydration clause or he’s going to need to move on to face someone else. Khan doesn’t want to have to fight another opponent that outweighs him by a huge amount like he had to deal with when he fought Saul Canelo Alvarez in 2016. Brook rehydrates into the 170s, and Khan in the mid-150s. It’s not a fair fight unless Brook agrees to a rehydration limit of 10 lbs. If Khan can keep Brook’s rehydrated weight to 157 tops, then the two of them will be fighting on an even playing field in January or February. If Brook were fighting someone that rehydrated into the 180s like Callum Smith, he likely would want him to agree to a rehydration clause that would keep his weight in the low 170s so the two of them would weigh the same amount. If not, Brook would be facing a guy that is much heavier and powerful than him. Smith would have too much size and power for Brook. It’s the same thing with Khan. He doesn’t want to be fighting a guy that outweighs him by 10 to 15 lbs on the night.

“The bottom line is I’m the kind of the welterweights in Britain,” Brook said. There’s many options. “There’s Manny Pacquiao. There’s all these people. His [Eddie Hearn] loyal lays with me. So if anyone is going to get the Manny Pacquiao fight, it’s me. I’m loyal. I’ve been with ‘Fast Car’ [Hearn] from the start. The big fights are there for me,” Brook said.

It’s fair to say that Brook is the best welterweight in the UK. However, given that Brook weighs in the 170s and no long fights at welterweight, you can’t say that he’s the best fighter at 147 in the country any longer. It’s now been 1 1/2 years since Brook last fought at 147 in his 11th round TKO loss to Errol Spence Jr. in May 2017. Brook can’t continue to say he’s the best in a particular weight class when he stops fighting at that weight. You can say the same thing about a fighter that retires. When they continue to say they’re the best fighter in a weight class when they’re no longer fighting, you have to take it with a grain of salt when they still proclaim themselves as the best in that weight class.

“If Errol Spence wants to fight, fight me at 154,” Brook said. “He’s a big dude. It’s an exciting fight. I know I can beat him. The thing is if he wants fight, I’ll fight him at 154. There’s many options. I want to fight in December, and then I want a mouth-watering fight next year. I definitely want a fight. I’m in the gym training every day. I want to give the fans some action again,” Brook said.

No one is going to take Brook seriously about him wanting to fight Spence right now, because his promoter Hearn would surely talk him out of that idea. Moreover, Spence wants someone to face him at 147 so that he can continue to defend his IBF welterweight title. Spence hasn’t defended the belt since last June when he flattened his mandatory challenge Carlos Ocampo in the 1st round. Spence wants his next opponent to be a challenger to his IBF belt. If Brook wants to melt back down to 147 to challenge Spence for his IBF title, then he would gladly take that fight. However, Eddie Hearn wouldn’t likely agree to that.

Brook is supposed to be fighting on December 8, according to Hearn. That obviously won’t be against a fighter like Spence. Hearn is probably going to find another soft junior middleweight contender for Brook to face. With it not being mid-October, Hearn doesn’t have much time to find Brooks opponent for the December 8. The longer it takes for Hearn to find someone for Brook to fight that more likely it’ll be that he faces another poor opponent. Hearn recently wanted to match Brook against Brandon Cook, but his ankle injury caused that fight to be canceled. Cook instead fought WBO junior middleweight champion Jaime Munguia on September 15 and was knocked out in three rounds. Hearn will probably get someone like Roberto Garcia, Patrick Allotey or Ted Cheeseman for Brook to fight on December 8.