Kell Brook: I’ll die a happy man with victory over Khan but I won’t believe it until he’s in the ring with me …
Kell Brook wakes up every morning with Amir Khan on his mind. In
training camp, Khan is on his mind. Khan has been on his mind for many
years. “This fight would haunt me for the rest of my life if it didn’t
happen,” explains the former welterweight world champion Brook from
his training camp in Spain. The 35-year-old appears lean and
sun-kissed, his jaw defined. “There are even times now when I think he
won’t turn up in the ring on February 19 in Manchester. I have massive
concerns. I’ll only feel at ease when I’m looking at him with his
gloves on. That’s when I’ll know it’s on. Otherwise we’ve got a week
to go, and when I’m hearing little niggles and little negative things,
it’s not something I want to hear. I want to hear he’s looking
brilliant and that there’s no excuses.”
Brook insists, in this exclusive interview for The Sunday Telegraph,
that his pursuit of sharing a ring with Khan stems back to 2014 after
his stirring victory in Carson, California, when he won a monumental
battle with the American Shawn Porter, in Carson, California to become
a welterweight world champion. Brook was 27, and in his prime. Khan,
he felt, was the greatest fight out there, a bragging rights fight
which “could have packed out Wembley Stadium” and instead, after
protracted on-off negotiations, they now meet, eight years later, at
the 20,000 seater Manchester Arena. Tickets have been like gold dust,
and although belated, it is a rivalry and a grudge fight mired in
animosity. Many times, I have been sitting with Brook over the years
and his eyes have grown dark at even the mention of Khan. Brook’s
emotion is never far from the surface when his greatest foe figures in
his imagination.
Now they meet – both 35 – in similar states of ‘decline’. This could
be the last stand for the loser.
“I tried everything and it never happened. But now I’ll feel complete.
I’ve still got a lot to give the game but I’ll feel complete because
it’s a grudge match I needed on my record. For 20 years plus – since
we were young amateurs – it’s been talked about and now the buzz is in
the air and it’s finally here. But seriously, I won’t believe it until
he steps into the ring with his gloves on standing opposite me.”
Brook, who survived “an unprovoked machete attack” and was stabbed
three times in the leg on 4 September 2014, whilst on holiday with his
pregnant wife in Tenerife, a month after his world title triumph,
recovering after major surgery. The assailant was never arrested.
Brook has come up the hard way, without the Olympic accolades and the
training camps alongside Manny Pacquiao, and sojourns with fame in
America, which Khan has enjoyed.
Those privileges Khan has experienced make Brook appear spiteful at
times, but he insisted to The Sunday Telegraph that his emotions are
due to his feeling that Khan swerved him in his prime.
“I know people go on about [Tyson] Fury and AJ [Anthony Joshua] as the
biggest fight, but this fight has been a long time coming and now
we’re here and we’ve got it. This fight would haunt me for the rest of
my life if it didn’t happen. I tried everything and it never happened.
But now I’ll feel complete because it’s a grudge match I needed on my
record.”
There is respect – as a fighter – for Khan. “This fight has got to be
put up there. He’s also done well in his career and become a world
champion and fought in America against the big names. He’s another
Brit close to myself, I’m Sheffield and he’s Bolton. We’re not even an
hour’s drive from each other. We finally get the fight everyone wants
to see. It will define me. It will show I’ve done absolutely
everything in the boxing game. Fighting fights that shock people,
moving up two weights to fight Gennady Golovkin, and fighting Terence
Crawford and going overseas to win the title against Porter, winning
the British title outright. But this is the icing on the cake for me.
It’s right up there. This fight is mega. I can actually feel it.”
“I really wish we could have had a bigger arena. But it is what it is.
It’s sold out in record time and it shows you this fight has not lost
its appeal. It would have been a lot better a good few years before
but better late than never.”
Will Brook have to control his emotions ? “I’ll be honest. It’s raw
for me, my trainers Dom and John Ingle will have to keep my emotions
in check. They want this victory as much as me – we all know this is
the fight we are going to be remembered for, and what a fight it’s
going to be…”
Brook is only too aware of Khan’s blistering hand speed, his
trademark. “I always take time to get into a fight but I’m expecting
him to be really fast. I might have to take second place for three,
four rounds, but it’s a 12 round fight and he is in with me – a man
who wants this with a passion – and I will eventually take him out. If
I get hurt you are going to see how much it means to me. The will, the
grit, if needed. I visualise when I wake up every day only one winner
and I see me catching up with him and stopping him. He has been to the
moon and back – we are the same age – but he don’t want it like me.”
Brook has been insulted by Khan’s comments that the Bolton man is
“levels above” his Yorkshire foe, but that plays into the mindset, the
game plan. “If he believes what he’s saying, he’s in for a rude
awakening. I’m no average man, I’m a YY gene, a one off. It’s a mega
fight however you look at it.”
Bragging rights will be on the line come Saturday night. After all the
talk, all the hype, all these years, the fight. “The closer we get the
bigger it will get. I think he’s looking more at the money, for me
it’s real, not about the money. He lives a different lifestyle to me
– if i wanted to get out of the game I could. This fight is more than
money for me, it’s personal. I believe I can die a happy man with
victory over Khan. I really can die a happy man. It’s a tough,
dangerous game. I’ve been in with the pound for pounds, I’ve been to
America and won a world title. To have this on the top of my resume is
the icing on the cake for me.”
Amir Khan vs Kell Brook is live on Sky Box Office on February 19