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Pacquiao out, Brook in Khan’s radar
By Eddie Alinea
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 12 Oct 2018
With his repeated call for Filipino icon Manny Pacquiao going unheeded, welterweight Amir Khan has reportedly set his eyes on fellow Briton Kell Brook early next year.
Matchroom boxing promoter Eddie Hearn told ESPN on Tuesday that the much-anticipated meeting between the two former world champions, who he both promotes, is currently in the works and could be held in February.
"It's been in the mix for a while," said Hearn, who met with Khan last week to discuss his future. "With (Manny) Pacquiao not committed to a fight with Khan, (Brook-Khan) could be in February or March. We know it's a huge fight. We're looking at that."
Khan has been pursuing Pacquiao to fight him for years to no avail and now Pacquiao appears more interested in a rematch with unretiring Floyd Mayweather, Khan’s biggest fight in his career could be against Brook.
Brook, a former welterweight titlist now boxing as a junior middleweight, and Khan, an ex-unified junior welterweight titleholder who has been fighting as a welterweight, have been reported to erase each other for years for a fight that is expected to be massive in the United Kingdom.
When Khan signed with Hearn in January it was assumed it was for the purpose of eventually putting the fight with Brook together and Hearn has been talking to both sides in his efforts to make it a reality.
Khan, however, had expressed preference to face the eight-division world belt owner instead, claiming that confrontation with the now Filipino senator could be bigger than the one against Brook or anybody.
It will be the fourth time that Khan, a former stablemate of the soon-to-40-year old World Boxing Association welterweight titlist, will miss fighting Pacquiao.
Report had it that Pacquiao has signed with manager/adviser Al Haymon although details of the deal have yet to be made public except that the multi-division world champ had signed to a two-fight deal that would possibly see him returning to the US to face Adrien Broner in early 2019 and then Mayweather in a megabucks rematch of their 2015 encounter which was the most lucrative prizefight of all time.
Broner had drawn once and lost twice in his last three fights. He drew with Jessie Vargas in a 12-round super-lightweight showdown last April 21 before bowing to Mikey Garcia and Adrian Granados by decisions last year.
Pacquiao who lost his WBO 147-pound crown to Australian Jeff Horn in 2017, came back to claim the WBA version of the title last July with a seventh round TKO of Lucas Matthysse in Kuala Lumpur.
The first time Mayweather and Pacquiao fought drew upwards of $600 million and set records for both pay-per-view buys and live gate revenue. The rematch is guaranteed to be yet another monster event that even if it generates half the revenue of the first fight, it’ll still be the biggest money fight, by far, to be made in all of boxing.
Still a legitimate top 5 welterweight, Pacquiao’s abilities are mostly intact and a real threat to any of the fighters at 147.
According to Hearn, Khan wants the fight with Brook at the welterweight limit of 147 pounds, which Brook has struggled to make and is the reason he moved up in weight. But Khan learned a hard lesson when he moved up to fight Alvarez at 155 pounds, one over the junior middleweight limit, and wants Brook to come down in weight to fight him.
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