Kell Brook agrees to Errol Spence fight with Amir Khan superfight on hold until later this year
IBF welterweight champ faces dangerous American who has won 18 of 21 fights by knockout
KELL BROOK will fight Errol Spence at the end of May - leaving a potential superfight with Amir Khan on the ropes.
The IBF welterweight champ has long been linked with Khan but is now likely to face the undefeated American for his comeback.
There is still a chance Brook and Khan go head-to-head later this year, but the two camps could not decide on money this time round.
Brook has now decided to meet the dangerous Spence, 26, amid the threat of his title being stripped.
Spence, the mandatory challenger, is undefeated in 21 fights - 18 of which have come via knockout.
Promoter Eddie Hearn wanted Brook to continue at light-middleweight - where Brook was beaten by Gennady Golovkin last year - but Brook will again step down in weight.
The Sheffield fighter has struggled to make the weight in recent fights.
RELATED STORIES
Hearn told the : "It’s no secret that it is a struggle for Kell to make 147 pounds and I felt he would be better off at 154 (light-middleweight).
"But Kell does not want to vacate. Spence is who he wants to fight and that fight is very close to being made.
"The only way we would not do it is if Khan comes about, but he wants a tune-up fight first.
"A fight with Spence is the firm favourite and I’d hope to make it in the next week."
Purse bids will take place next Tuesday.
Amir Khan looks likely to face Danny Garcia in a rematch - Garcia beat Khan in a unification bout by knockout in 2012.
Khan said: "They’re both big fights, both big-money fights, but the fight between me and Garcia is something that always hurts me.
"I know I could have won that fight. I was beating him and schooling him, until I got hit with a big shot."