By Steve Kim
Should Amir Khan (32-4, 20 KOs) defeat Samuel Vargas this weekend as expected, there will be plenty of speculation over who he will face next. For years, he and Kell Brook have circled one another but have never actually come close to facing one another in the ring.
There have been various roadblocks and issues that have kept this British grudge match from occurring but Khan says now to BoxingScene.com - "there's no issue, look, I've just done a deal with Eddie Hearn, so he's now my promoter. He also promotes Kell Brook. So now we are even closer to it, that fight.
"So now it's all over that weight, he's at 154, I'm at 147. I know I had my last fight at 150 because I was two years out. But I've always said I was 147, now he's agreed to the fight in the interviews that he'll come down to 147. So now it's all about the agreements, doing the negotiations."
Brook, the former IBF welterweight champion, had a tough 2016 and 2017 - where he faced middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin in five rounds (in 2016), and then moved back down in weight to defend his belt against the talented Errol Spence (in 2017) and was stopped in the 11th rounds.
He returned to the ring this past March and he stopped Sergey Rabchenko in two as a junior middleweight.
Khan continued - "I've left it to my team,'Listen, if it makes sense fighting Kell Brook - let's take that fight.' So that's where we are at the moment."
Khan returned to the ring back in June, when he stopped Phil Lo Greco in only 39 seconds. It was Khan's first bout since May of 2016, when he suffered a sixth round knockout loss to then middleweight champion Saul "Canelo" Alvarez. For that contest, Khan moved up to a catch-weight of 155-pounds.
Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com.
