IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook’s promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Sport believes that a fight between Brook and British boxing start Amir Khan (29-3, 19 KOs) is possible for April or May of 2015 with the winner then moving on to face WBA/WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr (46-0, 26 KOs) later on in 2015 in a unification match.
It sounds like a reasonably good idea except that if Brook wins the fight over Khan, Mayweather would then be facing Brook, a fighter with a name that doesn’t resonate with casual boxing fans. It would be similar to Mayweather facing Chris Algeri.
Casual boxing fans wouldn’t have a clue to Brook is, and the pay-per-view buys would be likely low for the fight. It wouldn’t be really worth much for Mayweather to fight Brook, because at that point he would only have had 2 fights in front of the American audiences. His fight last Saturday night against Shawn Porter was the first fight, and the Khan would be the second provided that it gets picked up by Showtime.
“That’s the fight everyone wants to see in this country. We’re already in talks with them and that’s the plan,” Hearn said to Fighthype.com. “I think it’s realistic if everyone is sensible. That fight can get made for April or May next year, and then I think the winner should fight Floyd Mayweather.”
If Khan beats Brook, then a Mayweather-Khan fight would be a fairly big fight in the U.S, and easily the most viable fight for Mayweather. However, Khan really needs to take on a name in his next fight on December 6th in order to make a fight against Mayweather a bigger deal.
Khan has been taking it easy for the last 2 years in facing lower level opposition since his losses to Danny Garcia and Lamont Peterson. But if Khan could step up and fight an actual top contender like Keith Thurman and beat him, then a Mayweather-Khan fight would be a big deal.
Khan’s management is interested in putting him in with Robert Guerrero or Devon Alexander, and those fights might not be big enough for Khan to increase his popularity. The problem with Alexander and Guerrero is they were both exposed recently in one-sided losses, and they’re still trying to rebuild their careers at this point. It wouldn’t make sense for Khan to fight someone who is roughly in the same situation he is in trying to rebuild his own career.
