Amir Khan has told British rival Kell Brook he needs to "fight some proper opponents" if he wants their much anticipated showdown to become reality in 2016.
Bolton welterweight Khan (31-3, 19 KOs) and Brook (35-0, 24 KOs) are waiting for their next fights to be arranged, with the latter forced to postpone a planned third defence against Argentine Diego Chaves (23-2-1, 19 KOs) at the Sheffield Arena on October 24 due to a rib injury. It is now looking unlikely that Brook-Chaves will be rearranged for London on December 12, but will instead take place early next year.
Khan is in the running with American Terence Crawford (27-0, 19 KOs) -- the WBO world light-welterweight champion -- to be Manny Pacquiao's next and final opponent of an astonishing career that has seen the Filipino win world titles in eight weight divisions.
If Khan, 28, does not land the megafight with Pacquiao in Las Vegas on April 9, after missing out on a money-spinning bout with Floyd Mayweather Jr, the plan is for him to still fight in January.
And a showdown with Sheffield's IBF world welterweight champion Brook, 29, remains remote at the moment, with Khan insisting his rival must face a big-name opponent before they meet.
Khan, who is currently on holiday in India, has scoffed at the quality of Brook's next opponent Chaves, who has only won one of his last four fights.
The Argentine was knocked out in the 10th round by Keith Thurman -- the WBA champion -- in 2013, lost by ninth round disqualification to Brandon Rios a year later and last December held WBO champion Tim Bradley to a draw.
Chaves, 29, is also a former holder of the WBA interim title, but Khan expects it to be a comfortable night for Brook, who will be fighting in his home city for the third successive fight.
"The guy he's fighting next, it's a walk in the park," Khan told ESPN. "Kell has been protected quite well and he won't have any problems with that fight.
"He's not been put in with a dangerous guy, his first dangerous fight will probably be against me. It's another walk in the park for him. I can't believe how he has been fed these opponents.
"He needs to step in the deep end and take some big fights. I want him to win those big fights because at the moment it will just be a British rivalry fight. To make it a mega fight one day he has to stop facing these bums and fight some proper opponents.
"When you are a world champion you need to be in the top fights. I fought against Paulie Malignaggi, Marcos Maidana and Zab Judah as champion, and I've been fighting top guys since.
"It's just very sad to see he's not facing anyone who is not going to cause him problems.
"He's been covered up with cotton wool until he fights me. He's fought nobody. They are just trying to tick him over until he fights me. I want to prove I'm a level above him.
"If you look at my resume I'm well ahead in who I've fought, people like Maidana. I've been in tough fights, win or lose. I've lost fights but at least I've been in with the best fighters in the world.
"With Brook he just doesn't want to take a dangerous fight. He knows there's a lot of reward for fighting me, he knows he will be paid well."
Khan believes Brook needs to face higher ranked fighters like American Tim Bradley, who holds the WBO version of the world title, and Chaves' fellow Argentine Marcos Maidana to build up his profile before they meet.
Khan says Brook is "killing" the size of their potential fight by his choice of challengers and has told him to fight high-ranked opponents to build up interest in their potential fight next year.
Brook has so far stopped Briton Frankie Gavin and Canadian Jo Jo Dan in his home city since out-pointing American Shawn Porter for the title in California.
"I hope the British fans clock on that's he's not fighting anyone," Khan told ESPN. "The British crowd are getting a sniff of it and they realise that Amir has been right.
"Now I'm considering fighting him, Kell is taking the easy route.
"At the moment Kell is killing the fight, he's cheating himself and the British boxing fans. I go to America and people do talk about him but they see him as a nobody. They say to me: 'There's a guy in the UK who is a champion, do you know him?'
"But I want him to fight Bradley or Maidana and beat them and then it would make our fight bigger.
"I don't want him to be caught out. I want to be the first guy to beat Kell. At the moment he's fooling the British public."
Khan remains hopeful rather than confident that he will face his British rival next summer.
"It could be against Brook next summer," he added. "I spoke to [promoter] Eddie Hearn a couple of months ago and we had a small chat about what we can do to make the fight happen.
"I think it will be a massive, maybe at Wembley Stadium, it could be at a football stadium like Bolton Wanderers where I've always wanted to fight."
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