By Edward Chaykovsky
IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook (35-0, 24KOs) was very disappointed when Amir Khan finalized his fight with WBC middleweight champion Saul "Canelo" Alvarez for May 7th at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Canelo-Khan takes place at a catch-weight of 155-pounds.
For the last few weeks, there have been serious negotiations taking place to finalize a fight between Khan and Brook. Matchroom Sport's Eddie Hearn, who promotes Brook, was confident a deal would get made for June 4th at Wembley in London.
Both Hearn and Brook were stunned when Khan announced on Tuesday that he was facing Canelo.
When Hearn called Brook to discuss the situation, the Sheffield fighter immediately looked for a way to upstage Khan's bout. He told Hearn to get him a fight with IBO/WBA/IBF middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (34-0, 31KOs) at 155-pounds. Golovkin is the mandatory challenger to Canelo's WBC title and the winner of the upcoming bout with Khan would have to face him in the fall.
"Kell's reaction last night was actually 'get me Golovkin at 155-pounds.' I started laughing and he said 'I'm serious.' I actually spoke to [Golovkin's promoter] Tom Loeffler about it last night," Hearn told IFL TV. "I believe Kell is the best welterweight in the world, but he has to build the resume to prove it. He will jump into a super-fight in the summer. He has to and he will."
Golovkin is heading into a mandatory defense against Dominic Wade on April 23 and then will wait for the Canelo-Khan winner. A fight with Brook is unlikely for 2016, unless it happens at the end of the year, and even then its doubtful Golovkin would head down to a catch-weight of 155 - as he's already refused to make that weight for a potential fight with Canelo.
Hearn has a lot of other options on his mind, with Brook first making a mandatory defense against Kevin Bizier on March 26th.
"[There is] Golovkin, [Miguel] Cotto, [Keith] Thurman, [Danny] Garcia. We might have to travel, but I want to make the big fights here because I'm a British promoter and my partner is Sky," Hearn said.
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