Ringtv.com

Kell Brook will likely defend his welterweight title against mandatory challenger Errol Spence Jr. with a purse bid looming on Feb. 7, promoter Eddie Hearn told RingTV.com on Tuesday.

“He has a purse bid with Errol Spence next Tuesday,” Hearn told RING in Manhattan. “I want him to move up to 154 pounds because I know he’s a better fighter at 154 pounds. He wants to stay at 147 because he doesn’t want to vacate his belt. So, we’ll probably fight Errol Spence.”

As per IBF rules, Brook (36-1, 25 knockouts) is entitled to a 75/25 split of the winning bid if it does go to auction. Hearn believes Al Haymon, who handles Spence (21-0, 18 KOs), is focused on a purse bid since he never responded to an offer he made. Brook is THE RING-rated No. 1 welterweight while Spence is No. 8 in the rankings. “Hopefully, Mr. Haymon can dig nice and deep, which he’ll have to do to beat us on that one,” Hearn said of the purse bid. “But we’ve made Errol Spence an offer and they didn’t come back to us, so I presume they just want to go to a purse bid.”

Hearn acknowledged that Brook’s options at 154 pounds are slim with most of the top fighters probably not inclined to face Brook right away. “Who do you fight at 154?” Hearn said. “I’d love him to fight Miguel Cotto. Cotto is not going to fight Kell Brook.” Then there’s a potential welterweight clash with Amir Khan, who has stated he wants a tune-up before facing Brook and has also made unrealistic demands, according to the promoter. “He keeps asking us to do things (to fight him),” said Hearn. “’Go ahead and win a world title.’ So Kell went and won a world title. ‘Go ahead and have a big fight.’ So he went up to middleweight and had a big fight with Gennady Golovkin. Now he wants 70/30 on the split. It’s an insult.”