• IBF Welterweight title

Brook title shot in doubt after Porter fight falls through

Kell Brook, left, and agent Eddie Hearn are waiting for a new date to fight Shawn Porter © Getty Images

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Kell Brook is waiting to discover if he will get his world title shot against Shawn Porter after seeing a bout scheduled for August 9 fall through.

Porter risks being stripped of the IBF welterweight title if he avoids the fight, with Brook's agent Eddie Hearn admitting in his Daily Mail column that the Sheffield fighter would be "devastated" if the fight fails to happen.

Brook appeared to have put two years of frustration behind him when he signed a deal to fight Porter at the Brooklyn Barclay Center, with a proposed date of August 9.

However, both Danny Garcia and Lamont Peterson are now scheduled to fight on that bill.

Hearn insists Brook's part of the contract is signed but claims that Porter is yet to put pen to paper on his side of the deal. The IBF have Brook as the mandatory challenger to Porter's title and have ordered the fight to take place no later than September 7.

But Porter, who has been mooted as a possible opponent for Floyd Mayweather Jr, could be stripped of his title if he fails to comply with the deadline.

"The politics are being played out between the various promoters so I don't know what is going on," Hearn wrote. "All I can say is we have a signed agreement for that fight and supposedly Porter will send his bout agreement to the IBF.

"I don't believe in a million years that Porter will get the Floyd Mayweather fight and there's no doubt that if he doesn't fight Brook, he'll be stripped of his title.

"Kell Brook would be devastated if he has to fight for a vacant title. He's had Porter in his head for three or four months and all he wants to do is get in the ring and fight him.

"[Porter's team] know what kind of fight this is, a real fight against a top welterweight and maybe the risk-reward doesn't work out. But they're in too deep and the only way out is to vacate and I can't see him doing that."

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