Golden Boy VP: Claim of Khan Running From Brook is Ridiculous

By Steve Kim

When the announcement was made that WBC middleweight belt-holder Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez (46-1-1, 32KOs) would be facing Amir Khan (31-3, 19KOs) on May 7th, there was great surprise throughout the boxing industry. Putting aside that Khan is a welterweight, he was also a fighter that was aligned with Al Haymon and Premier Boxing Champions.

But according to Eric Gomez, the bond between Khan and Oscar De La Hoya, from his days at Golden Boy Promotions never wavered.

"Oscar's been friends with Amir for a long time, he's kept in touch with him throughout the last year, year-and-a-half and Oscar really likes Amir - not only as a friend, as a fighter,"said Gomez, the Sr. V.P. of GBP this past week while on 'the 3 Knockdown Rule' podcast with Mario Lopez.

"We consider Amir part of our family. I mean, he was with us for a number of years and always in very, very good fights and to see him passed over by the likes of Floyd(Mayweather) and Manny(Pacquiao), it was sad because he deserves those fights. He should be considered for those fights, big fights. It was funny because we kept reading the articles where they were saying Amir was running from Kell Brook. I mean, any notion of Amir running from someone was ridiculous because if you know Amir he's a warrior. He's fought the best fighters out there and there's nothing in him that's afraid."

"So it made sense making this fight," Gomez continued."Two big names, it's two guys who are really at the top of the sport. They're both young and it was a natural. But Oscar's really the one who got it going so I have to give credit where credit is due, Oscar was really responsible for making this fight."

Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com.