Amir Khan vs. Kell Brook Dead Again.

Though Amir Khan and Kell Brook are natural opponents for each other, it seems unlikely that the two will ever meet in what would end up being one of the biggest fights in British boxing history. While talks suggested the two were angling towards a summer clash for Brook’s IBF Welterweight title, the fight is now dead in the water as the two camps are extremely far apart on the financial details.

Both Khan and Brook are coming off of stoppage losses to Middleweight champions Saul Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin respectively, but their market value didn’t suffer as the two faced almost insurmountable odds against the much bigger men. According to Eddie Hearn, Brook’s promoter, Khan stood firm on a 70/30 split of the purse and refused an even split with champion Brook saying that at even 30%, Brook would make more than the $5 million he pocketed for the Golovkin fight in a report from Martin Domin of UK site The Mirror.

Attempts have been made to make Khan/Brook for the better part of the last few years, but it almost certainly has come to a dead stop at the hands of Khan each time. Khan’s unwillingness to fight Brook isn’t fear, but more of an unwarranted ego trip he’s been on for the past few years. After taking back-to-back losses to Lamont Peterson and Danny Garcia nearly five years ago, Khan has been holding out for the biggest potential paydays he could find for himself.

As a result, Khan has been inactive to the point where he’s practically fighting part-time and has only openly discussed a desire to fight Manny Pacquiao, Garcia or UFC champion Conor McGregor since getting stopped by Canelo last March. While Khan is a recognizable fighter, he simply hasn’t done enough to warrant a majority split with the more active and popular Brook. There simply isn’t anyone else besides Brook that will satisfy Khan’s purse demands, including the aforementioned Pacquiao or Garcia.

Brook isn’t going to waste any more time on Khan and may go ahead with honoring his mandatory commitment with the dangerous Errol Spence in the next few months. There’s also the possibility of Brook moving up in weight to 154 pounds and vacating the title, perhaps to mix it up with a very deep Junior Middleweight division against the likes of the Charlo Twins and Erislandy Lara.

At this point, Khan/Brook looks like the first casualty of the 2017 boxing year. As of right now, no other fights have been mentioned for either fighter and they’ll remain on the shelf for the time being.