Lawrence Lustig

Matchroom boss Eddie Hearn has told Kell Brook to start training now in a bid to make the welterweight limit for the first time in eighteen months.

Brook has been promised a big fight this year, potentially against Amir Khan or Manny Pacquiao but needs to begin the process of boiling down from his out-of-action weight, which can be above the middleweight limit at times.

‘The Special One’ has made it under 147 pounds just once in the past two and half years, with Hearn hopeful Brook can shed excess poundage quickly enough to make a final clash at the lower limit.

It does seem a tough ask for Brook to be anywhere near his best condition to fight, even if he does successfully hit the limit, with Khan and Pacquiao both comfortable at hitting the mark.

A gruelling process awaits Brook over the next few months – but with options limited at super-welterweight, the Sheffield man is required to drop sufficiently for Khan or Pacquiao.

Knowing time is fast running out for his man and his best weight would be seven pounds higher, Hearn has already informed Brook to start a camp for his end of year showdown.

“He will make 147,” Hearn told Sky Sports. “I still think he’s better at 154, but if he’s got 16 weeks to do it, he’ll be okay.

“He said ‘who am I fighting?’ I said ‘it doesn’t matter, you may fight either of those guys (Amir Khan o Manny Pacquiao), but you need to get into the gym now’.

“Could Brook steal the Pacquiao fight, and Amir is left with nothing? Is Brook about to gatecrash the Pacquiao-Khan fight? It’s wide open for anybody to fight anybody.

“Brook has said to me, ‘I want a big fight’. He was going to have a run-out at Wembley (On September 22 for Joshua v Povetkin), but he was just ‘I want the big one’.

“But Brook is going to have to be at 147 to fight either of those two. He has to start now,” added Hearn.

Two defeats from his last three contests is far from ideal form for Brook to jump straight into a battle with world-class opposition, both of whom are lightning quick in Khan and Pacquiao.

A solitary win over Sergey Rabchenko – although very impressive, is looking a distant memory for Brook, with the biggest concern right now keeping the former welterweight ruler focused long enough to secure a dream fight before permanently leaving 147 behind.