By Victor Salazar
New York - Promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Sports was not shy when he was asked about a potential fight between the United Kingdom’s two most popular welterweights, Amir Khan (31-4, 19 KO’s) and Kell Brook (36-1, 25 KO’s).
According to Hearn, he spent most of last month trying to make the fight but to no avail because of Khan’s demands on the purse split.
“We have one guy who thinks 50-50 split is good in Kell Brook,” Hearn told BoxingScene.com. "Then we have another guy who insists 70-30 split is good or just put Kell Brook on a purse.”
Both men are coming off knockout stoppage defeats, and both suffered those losses after jumping up in weight. Khan was knocked out in six rounds last May by Canelo Alvarez (48-1-1, 34 KO’s) at a catch-weight of 155, while Brook went all the way to 160 and suffered a fifth round stoppage loss to middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (36-0, 33 KO’s).
As far as star power is concerned, neither boxer was seriously affected by last year's outcomes - and Hearn strongly feels his guy deserves half of the financial pot.
"Amir Khan may be a bigger name than Kell, but Kell’s a world champion,” explained Hearn. “Kell just boxed Golovkin. Kell is a quality fighter. When you’re dealing with egos like Khan, it's like a complete disregard for Kell.”
“Amir just wants to give him 5 million dollars and Kell will be fine. I don’t always try to worry about what the other guy gets but when there’s a pot of money and you’re bringing a lot to the table, which Kell is... it's a 50-50 split... just do it.”
In the opinion of Hearn, the only reason Khan is making things hard to finalize the fight is because Bolton boxer believes that a loss to Brook would ruin his career.
“I think he’s scared to lose the fight. If he was to lose to Kell Brook, his career would be ruined and it's a 50-50 fight. Amir’s an excellent fighter. He’s going to make a record purse for the fight, why wouldn’t you take the fight? Now he wants a warm up fight? Who’s going to buy a warm up fight?,” Hearn said.
