Khan: I’ll fight Brook-Spence or Garcia-Thurman winner

BoxingNews24.com

By Jeff Aranow: Amir Khan says he has the option right now of fighting the winner of the Kell Brook vs. Errol Spence Jr. or Danny Garcia vs. Keith Thurman fights. Khan isn’t sure which of the two winners of the fight he’ll end up facing, however. He says he does still want to fight Brook, but it’s still too early for them to fight because he plans on taking a tune-up fight in April to help test out his surgically repaired right hand.

Khan wants to use that fight to sharpen up. He suffered a bad knockout loss to middleweight Saul Canelo Alvarez last year in May. The problem with Khan fighting the winner of the Brook-Spence fight is that Brook might not take the fight.

Brook has been talking about moving up to 154, and his promoter Eddie Hearn wants him to make that move. If Brook does move up in weight, Khan says he won’t ever fight him, because he’s only going to fight at 147. Of course, Brook would be willing to come down to welterweight for the Khan fight or one of the big money matches against Danny Garcia, Thurman or Manny Pacquiao.

Khan doesn’t say whether he’d still give Brook the fight if he moves down from 154. Khan seems to want Brook to face his mandatory Errol Spence so that he can keep his IBF title and defend it against him when they face each other. Khan also thinks the fight with Brook will be bigger if he beats Spence. Khan is right. The fight would be much bigger if Brook turned around and beat Spence first. However, if Brook and his promoter Hearn don’t want to take the risk involved with fighting Spence, then there’s no point in Khan wishing for him to do what he’s willing and/or capable of doing.

Khan said this to Michelle Phelps about Canelo needing to fight Gennady Golovkin:

“Against the guy Chavez, he’s coming up in weight,” said Khan about Canelo. “Why doesn’t he fight at his natural weight? Canelo is supposed to be one of the best pound for pound. By not fighting Triple G, he’s fooling the public. He [Golovkin] wants the fight, but Canelo doesn’t want the fight. In my opinion, he could beat Triple G. Why not have the balls to get in the ring with him and have the fight and do that?”

Canelo will face Golovkin eventually. It may or may not be in 2017. If he does take place, then it’s going to be at the right price that Canelo and his promoters at Golden Boy Promotions are happy with. That means they take the lion’s share of the revenue for the fight. Golovkin won’t likely be able to share equally in the big money the fight brings in. If Golovkin doesn’t agree with the offer made to him by Canelo’s promoters at Golden Boy, they’re not going to lose any sleep over it. Canelo will make a lot of money in a rematch against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and in his December rematch against Miguel Cotto.

Speaking about the Kell Brook situation, Khan said, “I said to Kell’s promoter I want to go into a fight in April. The Brook fight can happen. At the moment, I’ve got my eyes on other opponents. I’ve got Al Haymon advising me to make the right moves. He’s going to give me a list of names, and I’m going to take it from there. I think it’s a fight that could happen. I want the Kell Brook fight. I told Eddie, ‘Let’s get this fight out of the way in April. Why doesn’t he [Brook] go ahead and fight his mandatory. With the mandatory out of the way, I’ll fight the winner.’ I have the option of fighting the winner of him and Errol Spence or the option of fighting the winner of Danny Garcia and Keith Thurman, because I’m the mandatory of the WBC. I’m in a good position where I can take the winner of two fights. It could be to fight the winner of Brook and Errol Spence or Danny Garcia and Thurman. So I’ve got good options. For April, it’s too soon,” said Khan.

Khan is very clear that he wants Brook to defend his IBF title against the unbeaten Spence (21-0, 18 KOs) in his next fight, and Brook’s feet dragging on that fight suggests that he’s underwhelmed by the thought of taking it. The way that Brook is leaving the decision until the very last moment gives the impression that he could wind up vacating his IBF title to avoid Spence.

Brook doesn’t seem to be looking at things from the sporting angle any longer with his boxing career. Brook seems to be more focused on getting the biggest money fights possible. We saw that with him moving up to 160 to challenge middleweight champion Golovkin in his last fight instead of him staying at 147 to get in another voluntary defense.

The IBF has now ordered Brook to fight Spence next, and he’s not jumping up and down at the excitement of having to do what they’re asking him to do. For the past two months, Brook has spent more time talking up big money fights against Khan, Manny Pacquiao and the Garcia-Thurman winner than he has in fighting Spence. Brook’s big payday against Golovkin has spoiled him in a way, because now all he wants is big paydays. It doesn’t work that way when you’re not quite a big star yet.

Brook could become a star where every fighter wants to face him and all of his fights are big paydays, even the ones involving him fighting over-matched opposition.

Brook hasn’t been involved in enough tough fights against talented fighters for him to be transformed into a star yet. Out of his entire 13-year pro career, Brook has faced only two good fighters in Golovkin and Shawn Porter. Fighting Spence would be a way for Brook to increase his popularity by taking the fight and beating him. Brook is more interested in getting big payday fights now without him having to test himself against someone dangerous like Spence.

It’ll be interesting to see if Khan winds up facing Brook in the future if he does in fact dodge the Spence fight and moves up to 154. Does Khan still offer him the fight or does he turn up his nose and ignore Brook until he proves himself against a worthy opponent like Spence, Pacquiao, Thurman or Garcia? If Brook does move up to 154, he could put himself at risk if he fights any of the good fighters in the division.

Khan doesn’t expect Brook to do that. He feels that Brook is just moving up to 154 to use it as a hideaway from Spence while he waits for a big fight to fall into his lap. If Brook is serious about wanting to fight at 154, then he should stay away from the following fighters: Jermall Charlo, Julian “J-Rock” Williams, Demetrius Andrade, Erickson Lubin and Erislandy Lara. Brook would have a decent chance of beating Jermell Charlo, because he’s not the puncher that his brother Jermall is, and he’s looked vulnerable in many of his fights since turning pro. It would still be a very difficult fight for Brook. Jermell is a talented fighter.