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Kell Brook didn't take too long to jump into the conversation tonight following Amir Khan's knockout loss to Canelo Alvarez, tweeting that he's ready to face Khan (31-4, 19 KO) in a big welterweight title fight.
Khan has certainly had no time to really consider what he'll be doing next, but there is a lot of money in the United Kingdom for a fight between the two. Brook (36-0, 25 KO) holds the IBF welterweight title, and he and promoter Eddie Hearn felt they were very close to making a fight with Khan, which they've been chasing for a while now, before Khan was announced to be fighting Alvarez instead.
I'm here all British showdown @amirkingkhan
— Kell Brook (@SpecialKBrook) May 8, 2016
The idea has been that Brook would be there for Khan win or lose in the Canelo fight, which was simply too big an opportunity for Amir to pass up, even considering he would go in as the major underdog. And Khan said after the fight when speaking with HBO's Max Kellerman that he would be moving back down to 147 pounds, where he had been fighting for the last two years, without any world title shots.
Khan has been on the other side of this sort of drama before, chasing a fight with Floyd Mayweather which he felt was in the bag in late 2013, before Marcos Maidana upset Adrien Broner and "stole" Khan's May 2014 date against Floyd, then rematched Mayweather that September. Khan also was reportedly negotiating for a fight with Manny Pacquiao, who instead chose to fight Timothy Bradley for a third time last month.
Brook, 30, is a talented fighter whose title reign has been criticized for weak opposition, as he's faced two mandatory challengers (Jo Jo Dan and Kevin Bizier) and made one optional title defense against Frankie Gavin. None of those opponents were really world class opponents, and following Brook's easy win on March 26 over Bizier, the criticism seems to have reached a new high.
Whether or not Khan would want to go right into a fight with Brook is another question, and if he doesn't, the idea probably will be that Brook will still be there in 2017, or whenever Khan really wanted to make that fight happen. But again, there is good money in it, and Amir says that he wants to only do big fights from now on. So we'll see.