Brook To Khan: You Have Nowhere Else To Go - Let's Fight!

By Edward Chaykovsky

IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook (36-1, 25 KOs) is bound to make a mandatory defense against Errol Spence (21-0, 18 KOs), but openly admits that a domestic showdown with Amir Khan (31-4, 19 KOs) is his top priority for this year.

Brook scheduled to return to the ring on May 20 or May 27, in a showdown with Khan or a mandatory defense against Spence.  A decision will have to be made soon, as Brook will be ordered to begin negotiations with Spence in less than four weeks.

“It’s been going on way too long; the British public need to have this fight. He’s got nowhere else to go,” Brook told Sky Sports. “This is the best that we’ve ever, ever had in talks; we’ve even been talking venues. We are really, nearly there. I don’t’ want to say too much and scare him off, I don’t want to scare Khan off. I just want to sit back, be reserved and let the team make the fight happen and then I’ll give it to him. The timing is right, it has to happen now. It needs to happen, for me, I’ve always been willing and ready to make the fight happen.”

The fight with Khan has been discussed for several years, but Khan is urging Brook to follow through with his mandatory obligation against Spence.

Khan has been out of the ring since suffering a knockout loss to Saul "Canelo" Alvarez last May at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. He wants to have a tune-up fight in April, to test out his right hand which underwent major surgery last year.

Brook has no desire to wait.

Like Khan, Brook has been out of the ring due to surgery. He was stopped in five rounds in September, after moving up by two weight divisions to fight middleweight king Gennady Golovkin. During the fight he suffered a fractured right orbital bone.

“Just pull your finger out and get down to business; get this locked off, get this fight signed. Forget all the egos involved, let’s just make it happen, me and you will make a bag full of money and we will give all that the world of boxing has been wanting to see, a real great fight," Brook said.