Amir Khan & Kell Brook: Shame Shame is Your Middle Name for Not Facing Tough Competition
By Travis Fleming
Are Amir Khan, 30-3 19 KO’s, and Kell Brook, 34-0 23 KO’s, talking big game to fool us into accepting their weak opponent choices? Amir Khan has disappointed fans everywhere by announcing a May 29th fight against the feather fisted Chris Algieri, 20-1 8 KO’s, at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Khan had a plethora of better options, including a massive British showdown with IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook, a long awaited grudge match with pound for pound ranked Timothy Bradley, or a big fight against American trash talker Adrien Broner. All three men were more than willing to fight Khan, but Khan has chosen to play it safe against the extremely light punching Chris Algieri instead.
The fight is of such little significance that Showtime has refused to even air it! Khan is a very popular fighter, so the fact that Showtime passed on this fight tells you all you need to know about its quality. Instead of being aired on a Saturday night on a proven fight network or on major network TV, this fight will be aired on Spike TV on a Friday night. That’s right folks, Amir Khan has gone from headlining on HBO and Showtime to being relegated to Friday night fights for his poor opposition choice. Algieri is a good fighter, but has no power, and presents no stylistic challenge to Khan. Algieri, like Khan, likes to box from the outside, the problem is that he’s not as good at it as Amir. Algieri’s not as fast or as powerful as Khan, and Khan throws a lot more punches.
Amir Khan is one of the hardest guys in boxing to win a round against from the outside. He handcuffs opponents with his blazing speed and volume. In order to beat Khan, you have to either have good power and be willing to punch with him when he flurries, or you have to be a good inside fighter and get inside of Khan’s range to rough him up in close quarters as Khan cannot fight on the inside. Unfortunately for Algieri, on top of not having power, he also has no inside game and will not learn it in just one training camp. Basically, Algieri is as safe at it gets for Khan. It would appear that Danny Garcia has Amir Khan shook to the core, because since the KO loss to Garcia, Khan has avoided anyone with enough power to smash his weak chin, or “delicate whiskers” as Kell Brook recently put it. Khan has long been chasing a huge payday in the way of a fight with Floyd Mayweather, JR., that he has done nothing to earn. His delusion has led him to believe that a fight with Mayweather is realistic, so in order to keep this fight as a possibility, he has avoided any fighter that might beat him, and ruin his chances of landing the big fight against the number one fighter in the world. Unfortunately for Khan, Mayweather usually only fights opponents coming off of big wins and Carlos Molina, Julio Diaz, Luis Collazo, Devon Alexander and now Chris Algieri are not the type of wins that will land him the big money fight. All Khan’s doing by fighting these guys is watching his stock fall as fighter who has become afraid to challenge himself.
Kell Brook tried to land a massive, all British, showdown against Amir Khan that Khan rejected, so instead of proving he’s elite by fighting Timothy Bradley or Keith Thurman, he has signed to fight fellow Englishman Frankie Gavin, 22-1 13 KO’s, who is an even lesser opponent than his first incredibly weak title defense against Jo Jo Dan. This pathetic defense will take place the day after Khan’s pathetic bout against Algieri at the O2 Arena in London, England, on May 30th.
Gavin has never beaten a good opponent as a pro and recently lost a fight to Leonard Bundu. Brook hid out in England as a protected fighter for way too long. He turned pro in 2004 and it was a full ten years and 31 fights before he faced a legitimate challenge. Last year, he finally took a risk by travelling to America to beat his first decent opponent in IBF champion Shawn Porter. He beat Porter in impressive fashion and went back to England with the IBF welterweight title and a new found reputation as an elite level fighter. Now that he’s got his title, it looks like it’s back to hiding out as a protected fighter in England. This news is extremely disappointing from a man who has the talent to hang in the elite ranks. Brook could have gotten a fight with Timothy Bradley that would have been an instant meal ticket to bigger paydays, superstardom, and a place in the top ten pound for pound list with a win, instead he reverted to his old ways of facing another no hoper at home.
Brook’s already old enough and doesn’t need any more “gimmies”. He’s only got a few more years in his prime and he’s wasting his potential by fighting these types of opponents. Unfortunately, it doesn’t get much better for Brook after the Gavin fight because it’s rumored that he will be having a summertime clash with Brandon Rios. Rios is much better than Gavin, but he’s a very limited fighter and not the quality of fighter that Brook should be facing if he wants to be thought of as one of the best in the world. Rios is a big enough name, but he’s tailor made for skilled boxers like Brook, and if they fight, Brook would be a heavy favorite once again. In order to make up for Dan and Gavin, Brook needs to fight a legit threat next. Not Andre Berto or Brandon Rios, he needs Amir Khan, Keith Thurman, Adrien Broner, Timothy Bradley, Danny Garcia, or the winner of Ruslan Provodnikov vs Lucas Matthysse.
All in all, it appears that neither of these talented British fighters are willing to do what it takes to be great and it’s a damn shame because they’re both very talented, and have a lot of excellent options for career defining fights. Instead of facing each other, they are fighting within one day of each other against fighters that have no hope to beat them. There are literally at least twenty fighters from 140 lbs to 147 lbs that would have been more respectable opponents for either man.
