Khan-Brook is never happening it seems.
When recent news broke that pound for pound elite welterweight titleholder Terence “Bud” Crawford (34-0, 25 KOs) was looking down a potential matchup with 37 year old former second tier contender Luis Collazo (38-7, 20 KOs), reactions were loud and negative not only here at S8C but across boxing fandom. It seems Top Rank has heard them and is trying to go in a different direction.
Reportedly British welterweight star Amir Khan (33-4, 20 KOs) is now Top Rank’s target opponent for Crawford. They aren’t messing around either as the word is that the promotional giant has offered the Matchroom fighter $5 million dollars for the fight. Khan has always chased big money fights against the sport’s top fighters. There is no doubt in my mind he will want to say yes. The only thing potentially standing in the way is Eddie Hearn at Matchroom who has vocally wanted to put Khan in with Kell Brook for a British domestic mini-super fight. This is probably too much money for him to ignore though.
While Khan is a much bigger name than Collazo and will go down a lot better with the boxing public and media, I do question how different of a fight it really will be. Is there a person in this planet that isn’t involved with Amir’s personal life that believes he can make it twelve rounds against Terence Crawford? Khan is lightning quick and technically solid for long stretches, but his chin is notoriously fragile. There is little chance of a hyper elite fighter like Crawford not being able to find it over twelve rounds.
If this happens, the reported target date is March 23rd at Madison Square Garden. Part of the reason Top Rank is able to offer Khan so much money is that the plan would be for this to be the first Top Rank on ESPN PPV event. If it happens the card probably won’t sell crazy well by any means, but all PPV draws started with lower buy rates somewhere. We will have to wait and see how this all plays out going forward.
