IF THERE’S ever a vaccine to protect us suffering from delusions of grandeur, Kell Brook and Amir Khan should be first in the queue to receive a double dose.
The prospect of these two beaten-up ex-world champions fighting each other has once again reared its ugly head.
Last week Brook and Khan were suggesting boxing fans were clamouring to see them settle their bitter long-standing verbal rivalry in the ring.
Brook said: “I need a big massive fight to get my teeth into and the fight we all want to see is with the guy from Bolton.”
Then he had the audacity to add: “Everybody knows this fight needs to happen — it’s the biggest fight in British boxing.”
I don’t know where Kell’s been hiding but he doesn’t seem to have heard of Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua or Dillian Whyte.
Khan, backing him up, intimated an announcement is imminent when he told talkSPORT: “Contracts are still going back and forth so hopefully something gets finalised this week.”
Six years ago, when they were both extremely popular attractions there’s no doubt if they had exchanged punches then — instead of words — they would have filled a football ground with excited punters.
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Since then, unfortunately, their careers have turned sour having suffered major defeats that have tarnished their reputations and box-office appeal.
Khan hasn’t fought for more than two years and has been more concerned flaunting his considerable wealth in an abysmal BBC TV series and living it up in Dubai.
It was nine years ago when he lost his WBA world light-welterweight title after Danny Garcia knocked him out.
And his last attempt to become a world champion ended disastrously when Terence Crawford easily held on to his WBO welterweight title in 2019 with Khan accused of ‘quitting’ in the sixth round.
Brook had his last fight a year ago. That was also against Crawford — but the American took just ten minutes to leave him a stumbling wreck.
If Kell and Amir weren’t multi-millionaires it would be understandable why they are trying to drum up interest to sell a grudge fight with a load of “Blah…Blah… Blah” to coin a phrase.
They probably believe they represent the British version of the Floyd Mayweather Jr-Manny Pacquiao confrontation.
Unfortunately they don’t seem to realise they are yesterday’s men.
There is nothing worse than watching former superstars going through the motions, fighting from memory.
Sadly we have seen it so many times before — Ricky Hatton and Barry McGuigan are two classic examples.
I certainly don’t want to see Brook and Khan going through the motions trying to relive past glories, apart from the morbidly curious it’s doubtful if many do.
They do say it’s better late than never. But never late is better.
There are many occasions when fighters should be saved from themselves and this is one where it definitely should be put into practice.
Perhaps if it’s made clear to Brook and Khan they haven’t anywhere near the financial muscle they used to have in their salad days they will go away and forget all about it, as Nigel Benn and Chris Eubank did when recently pressing to have a third battle.
Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
