Khan says Brook fight is close

By Scott Gilfoid:Boxing News 24

The management for Amir “King” Khan (31-4, 19 KOs) is in talks with IBF welterweight champion Kell “Special K” Brook’s promoters for a fight that he sees taking place in a stadium. Khan, 30, wants the fight with Brook finally, and he wants to end his career on a high rather than a low like we recently saw with 51-year-old Bernard Hopkins.

Khan says he doesn’t want to share the same fate as Hopkins, who was stopped in the 8th round this month by light heavyweight contender Joe Smith Jr. Khan needs to take the fight against Brook as soon as possible.

The 30-year-old Brook is coming off of a broken eye socket he suffered in his recent loss to middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin last September. Khan will never get a better chance to beat Brook like he will now. Brook’s confidence might be low, and his eye could close up on him once he starts getting hit on it by Khan. This is the ideal time for Khan to face Brook.

Khan wants his next fight to take place in the UK. He says he’s going to be talking to his manager Al Haymon after the New Year to get a fight done.

Khan feels that he’s got four to five more fights left in him before he ends his boxing career. If Khan’s career were to end today, then he would be getting out of the sport on an even worse showing than Hopkins with him getting knocked out entirely by Saul Canelo Alvarez last May in losing a 6th round knockout on HBO PPV. About the only positive thing you can say about Khan’s loss to Canelo was that he appeared to be in the lead after five rounds. The judges didn’t reflect that though, but many of the boxing fans thought Khan was ahead.

Khan said this to the Mirror.co.uk about wanting to end his career on a positive note.
“I want to go out on a high,” said Khan to the Mirror. “You’re always one fight away from losing and maybe Bernard should have packed it in when he knew he was getting that bit older. But he took that one last fight.”

If a fighter is going to test himself by fighting the best instead of weaker opposition, then the chances are high that they could lose. Khan tested himself against Canelo last May, and he failed miserably. That’s the bad news. What was good is that Khan at least fought someone talented, because before that fight, he hadn’t fought a high caliber opponent since his 4th round knockout loss to Danny Garcia in 2012. After that defeat, Khan used up four years of his career fighting weak opposition like Chris Algieri, Julio Diaz, Carlos Molina [not the former champion Carlos Molina], Luis Collazo and Devon Alexander. It was good that Khan finally faced someone good. At least Khan tried.

If Khan is going to get preoccupied with going out on a high with his career, then we could see Khan reverting back to fighting the Alexander, Molina and Collazo type fighters again rather than the relevant fighters.

At this point, Khan is going to likely get knocked out if he fights the good fighters at 147. Besides wanting the Brook fight, Khan also wants to fight the winner of the March 4 fight between WBC welterweight champion Danny “Garcia and WBA 147lb champion Keith “One Time” Thurman. Khan is going to have problems with either of those guys. It doesn’t matter who it is. He’ll also have problems against Brook. If Khan gets knocked out by Brook and the Garcia-Thurman winner, then it would appear that his career would be ending on a negative note much like Hopkins.

To be honest, Khan’s career would be ending in a worse way if he chooses to fight good opponents. Of course, if Khan goes back to fighting flawed contenders like he was mainly doing for a four-year period after his loss to Garcia in 2016, then he’ll end his career on a high note, albeit against weak opposition. It’s a trade-off. Khan can either pad his record like he was doing against non-relevant fighters/fighters from yesterday or he can fight the best and likely lose to them. The money for Khan is against the relevant fighters. Khan won’t make big money fighting contenders. He’s got to fight the champions if he wants to make the big cash.

“Talks are happening at the moment and we’re waiting on Brook’s team getting back to us,” said Khan.“That fight will sell out a stadium; it’s the biggest fight in British boxing. It’s been talked about for so long but now it’s close.”

I think the Brook vs. Khan fight has already reached its sell by date. It’s no longer a huge fight in my estimation. How can it be? Both guys are coming off of knockout defeats. Brook could suffer another knockout loss if he steps up to the plate and defends his IBF welterweight title against his #1 IBF mandatory challenger Errol Spence Jr. (21-0, 18 KOs). Khan could potentially save Brook from his fate by electing to fight him right now rather than kicking the fight down the road until later 2017. However, if Khan fights Brook now, he’s not going to have much time to test his surgically repaired right hand.

I think Khan wants to be able to test out his hand before he faces Brook, because if his right hand is reinjured under fight conditions, it’s better that it happen against a tune-up opponent than against Brook. For Brook, he doesn’t have the luxury of taking a tune-up fight, because his back is against the wall with him having to defend his title against his mandatory challenger Spence.

Supposing that Brook chooses not to take the fight with the talented 26-year-old Spence next, then he’ll have to vacate his IBF title. I don’t think Brook wants to do that. Not only will it make him look bad in the eyes of many boxing fans, but it will take away the only thing that makes Brook special right now. That’s his IBF title. If you take that belt away from Brook, then you’re left with a fighter with a padded record over his 12-year pro career.

Brook has fought only two good fighters during his entire pro career and that was Gennady “GGG” Golovkin and Shawn Porter. Golovkin stopped Brook, and Porter was arguably robbed of a decision. Brook got away with nonstop punching for 12 rounds in the Porter fight, and he probably been disqualified or heavily penalized in that fight.