By Keith Idec
If Kell Brook and Amir Khan indeed fight at the end of Khan’s new three-fight contract with promoter Eddie Hearn, Ricky Hatton views it as an encounter either boxer could win.
“It’s very hard to say,” Hatton told Sky Sports News. “They’re at similar positions in their career. It’s one of those exciting fights. It’s like a 50-50 one. You toss a coin because they’re both similar and are at similar stages of their career.”
The British rivals each will try to overcome knockout defeats during upcoming matches in England.
The 31-year-old Brook (36-2, 25 KOs) is set to battle Belarus’ Sergey Rabchenko (29-2, 22 KOs) on March 3 in Sheffield, Brook’s hometown. The former IBF welterweight champion has been stopped in back-to-back bouts by middleweight champ Gennady Golovkin and IBF 147-pound champ Errol Spence Jr., and needed reconstructive surgery to repair broken orbital bones following each of those losses.
Khan (31-4, 19 KOs), who’s also 31, hasn’t fought since Mexico’s Canelo Alvarez knocked him out in the sixth round of their WBC middleweight championship match in May 2016. The former WBA/IBF super lightweight champ will return from nearly a two-year layoff April 21, when he’ll face Canada’s Phil Lo Greco (28-3, 15 KOs) at Echo Arena in Liverpool.
If Brook and Khan win, they’ll build momentum toward a long-discussed domestic showdown that would earn them plenty of money. The retired Hatton is intrigued by the thought of it, but admits, “It’s one of those horrible ones because they’re both my mates.”
Hatton considers it a true crossroads fight for each of the former champions.
“It would be a defining fight for both,” Hatton said. “The loser then retires and the winner moves on to bigger and better things. I’d like to have seen it a few years ago, but in boxing sometimes it never happens, sadly.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.