AMIR KHAN and Kell Brook were pulled apart at their first public meeting ahead of their grudge bout.
The warring welterweights – with a combined age of 69 – came face-to-face in Mayfair for the first press conference to hype their February 19 clash.
Bolton’s 34-year-old golden boy will take on his Sheffield counterpart, 35, in a long overdue retirement showdown on neutral ground in Manchester.
And, as soon as they were introduced and forced to pose for photos, they went nose-to-nose, butted heads and were pulled apart by security.
Brook: “This has been going on for 17 years and even the negotiations have been unbelievably hard work but we have finally got it over the line.
“I am sick of people asking men when it is happening and now we have a date. February 19 will be when Amir Khan hits the deck for the final time.
“We have always been predicted to fight each other but he has always veered off and not given me respect, he has never acknowledged me and always ran away.
“Now he has nowhere else to run, this is the biggest money fight out there for him so that is why he wants it now.
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“He is in cuckoo land and believes he is a celebrity in the jungle. He is getting knocked spark out. I will retire him.”
Khan hit back with: “I respect him because he has fought the big names but I have never been scared of anyone.
“In the last 10 years I have lost to two of the best p4p fighters out there.
“I have never run from Kell, in the past I didn’t think he deserved it but now I am ready to put him in his place. Now we will see how he backs the words up.
“I am coming levels down for this fight, I have thought the best and conquered America but people want to see me punch him in the face.
“It is my time now to put him in his place. He goes on about my celebrity life but my boxing skills and achievements got me there, he is so bitter about that.”
Former IBF welterweight champ Brook – arguably one of Britain’s most talented fighters of this era who has failed to fulfil his true potential – suffered career-threatening facial fractures in losses to Gennady Golovkin and Errol Spence in 2016 and 2017, respectively.
And the down-to-earth Steel City ace was pummelled to his third career loss last year when Terence Crawford completely overwhelmed him.
Khan was also stopped by Crawford in 2019, after he had successfully rebuilt following the chilling knockout loss to Canelo Alvarez in 2016.
You have to go back to 2015 for the last meaningful victory for either man.
But their legacies and reputations could be determined by this last swansong.
Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
