A DEAL for Kell Brook to defend his IBF welterweight title against mandatory challenger Errol Spence is ‘very close’ according to his promoter, Eddie Hearn.
The IBF ordered negotiations for the bout, which will go to purse bids tomorrow if no deal is struck between the two teams.
After a fight with Amir Khan once again failed to materialise, Hearn directed his attention toward a meeting with unbeaten Spence.
“We’ve got a purse bids date tomorrow (February 7) but we’ve asked for a week’s extension from the IBF because I feel we’re very close to making a deal,” Hearn told Boxing News.
If negotiations did go to a purse bid, Brook would get 75 per cent of the winning bid and Spence 25 per cent.
Hearn expects the IBF to grant the extension request, and he remains confident that Brook’s next fight will be against Spence, despite personally feeling that his charge might be better suited to the super-welterweight division.
The wait almost over #FightOrVacate
— Errol Spence (@ErrolSpenceJr) February 5, 2017
Spence has been the IBF mandatory challenger for a while, but in September of last year Brook was granted permission to jump to middleweight and take on unified champion Gennady Golovkin. He lost due to an eye injury, and subsequently decided he would return to welterweight and defend his title.
Khan has previously claimed that should Brook make it through his mandatory obligation against Spence, a huge summer showdown between the two can be made.
“One thing about the Kell Brook fight, he’s got a mandatory challenger. Go fight your mandatory, you say you’re the king of mandatories, so go fight your mandatory. Hopefully you can take the fight with me afterward,” he told Boxing News.
Brook, while still willing to negotiate with Khan, despite several attempts at making the fight failing, is focused on returning to action after recovering from the surgery he required on the injury he sustained during the Golovkin fight.
