Eddie Hearn: ‘Last chance’ for Khan vs Brook

Eddie Hearn promotes both Amir Khan and Kell Brook. Thus, even though Khan has a reported $5 million offer to face Terence Crawford, Hearn wants to make the Khan-Brook fight, and says that it’s the “last chance” to get it done, despite Khan’s belief that the fight will always be there.

From Sky:

“Amir seems to think the Brook fight is always there. It’s not. This is now or never, this is the last chance. Let’s give the British public what they want. If Amir can beat Kell Brook, he could fight Crawford after for more money than he’s going to get now. I don’t see any excuses and Kell’s right. I’ve been with him a long time and I signed Amir Khan with a view to make this fight with Kell Brook. I believe the British public deserve this fight. Amir’s got options, Kell’s got options and they are going to make their decisions. Right now I think it’s probably 50-50 whether he fights Crawford or Brook. But like I said, as far as I’m concerned this is the fight, Kell Brook.”

Now, again, Hearn promotes both fighters. So yes, he’d like to pit them against each other in a money matchup where he isn’t co-promoting with Top Rank, who promote Terence Crawford. Hearn can go on about the British public deserving the fight and all that, and it sounds good for fans, but realistically it’s a business move to prefer Khan-Brook.

As for the Crawford negotiations, Hearn flat out says, “I’m not having too much to do with that side, because I don’t want that fight.”

The problem for Khan (33-4, 20 KO), as others have stated, is that frankly he’s going to be the underdog against either guy. Crawford is a titleholder at 147 and a top pound-for-pound fighter in the world.

There is some thinking that if Khan is going to risk getting his chin cracked again, he may as well do it against that level of fighter. No offense to Brook, a very good fighter, but nobody sees him on the level of where Crawford is now.

And despite Hearn saying that it’s now or never, it really isn’t. Again, and I said this earlier today, Khan-Brook isn’t going to be any bigger than it is now, especially if Khan goes out and loses to Crawford, but it could absolutely still happen and make some money. It could happen next year. In five years. In 10 years. Stupid fights happen all the time in combat sports, as we recently saw with Golden Boy’s lousy move into MMA with that Liddell-Ortiz farce.