Kell Brook was a guest at the British Boxing Board of Control awards ceremony yesterday, and the former IBF welterweight champ was asked, quite incredibly, about the possibility of a return fight between he and Amir Khan. To many people, if not all, the fact that a return fight between Brook and Khan is even a talking point is crazy. Brook smashed Khan to a thoroughly one-sided defeat in Manchester and nobody wants to see a sequel.
But Khan has that rematch clause and promoter Ben Shalom, who like Brook spoke with Sky Sports News yesterday, said he has heard how “the word on the street is Khan doesn’t want to call it a day.”
Brook said he would gladly give Khan “another whooping” if Khan really wants it.
“If he wants another whooping he can have another whooping,” Brook said of his, we thought, former fierce rival. “It was so one-sided, I don’t know what he can say and come back to the table with. If he wants the rematch, I’ll dust them gloves off and do it again.”
There are whispers that suggest Khan feels he was suffering from jet-lag in the Brook fight, that he also feels he underestimated Brook. As Shalom said yesterday, “Khan feels like he had ten weeks to prepare and Kell Brook had six months.”
Fighters as we know are so very often the last ones to know when it’s time to quit. For Khan, that time passed some months ago, maybe even years ago. Even with a longer, better camp (better than training with Terence Crawford and BoMac the way Khan did for the first Brook fight??) it’s almost impossible to see how Khan could return and improve on his performance of February 19.
But it really does seem as though the ball is in Khan’s court, that this wholly unneeded return fight could happen. But who on earth would watch Brook-Khan II if it did happen. Much less pay for it!
Brook has other options, and he would be far better off exploring those options if he does fight again. Maybe Brook would be better off just calling it a day himself though?
Thoughts?