Kell Brook’s win over IBF welterweight champion Shawn Porter last Saturday night has put ideas into Brook’s promoter Eddie Hearn’s head about wanting to match him not only against former IBF/WBA 140 pound champion Amir Khan in 2015, but also to put him in with WBA/WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr (46-0. 26 KOs).
Roach feels that the 28-year-old Brook rates a fight with Mayweather now that he’s in possession of the IBF 147 pound title.
“I think you have to say that Kell is now in the running to face Floyd Mayweather,” Hearn said to BBC Radio Sheffield. “Everyone in the division wants to fight Floyd, but if you hold a world title, then you are more likely to face him than if you don’t. He’s an obvious opponent and Mayweather is a target for 2015.”
I don’t know that Brook is any closer to getting a shot at Mayweather than he was before he held the IBF title and was unknown to casual boxing fans in the United States. Brook beat an unpopular champion in Shawn Porter last Saturday, but Brook is still a pretty much unknown fighter in the U.S.
I sort of doubt that the Brook-Porter fight brought in huge ratings on Showtime last Saturday night, and that means that a lot of boxing fans in the U.S still likely have no clue who Brook is.
The thing is Mayweather isn’t going to fight a belt holder who the American fans aren’t familiar with because it’s a fight that won’t sell. It’s true that Brook can bring some money to the table for a Mayweather fight from the UK pay-per-view money, but we’re not talking about huge money like Mayweather gets from the PPV numbers for his U.S fights.
Hearn also wants Brook to fight Amir Khan, but he’s got to know that the odds of that fight happening are going to be low until Khan gets a fight against Mayweather. Khan’s adviser Al Haymon and his promoters at Golden Boy Promotions are grooming him for the Mayeather bout.
They’re not going to mess things up for Khan by having him take on a belt holder like Brook. The big fight is Khan-Mayweather. Hearn is going to need to wait until that fight works itself out before he can look to get a Brook-Khan fight.
It would be interesting to see if Hearn could have Brook jump the line by getting him in front of Khan to fight Mayweather next May. I’m not sure that’s something that will happen, but it would be slap in the face to Khan if Brook takes the fight that he’s been after for ages now.
