By: Sean Crose
It’s an event that’s literally been years in the making…so long in the making, in fact, that it’s no longer particularly relevant. Still, it’s an event many wouldn’t mind seeing. And so, it’s now announced that former British fight stars Amir Khan and Kell Brook will finally square off in the ring on February 19th. The truth is that it’s really a shame these two didn’t meet earlier, for in their primes, they were forces to be reckoned with. What’s more, neither man was afraid to take chances, something that’s been a rarity in the contemporary fight game for a while now. There may have been things to criticize, but both men we always interesting to watch.
Still, it might be fun for fans to watch each man giving it his all against the other in order to add to his respective legacy and to earn whole a lot of cash. “Even the negotiations,” said Brook at a Monday press conference, “it’s been incredibly hard work, it’s been on, it’s been off, it’s been on, it’s been off. But finally got it across the line. I’m ecstatic that the fans are gonna see this fight, what they’ve wanted to see for years.”
There was a time when Khan wasn’t crazy about a Brook fight. As far as Khan is now concerned, though, it’s time to focus on the present rather than what could have been. “Look,” he said, “we’re here now, no point in crying about the past. At that time in the past I didn’t think he deserved the fight but now it’s come to a stage where I’m waiting to give him a good shot right in the face. I want to put him in his place. That’s what it’s all about, end of the day.”
Brook himself was ready to call out Khan for not facing him earlier in his career. “He’s never given me no respect,” Brook said of his fellow Englishman, “he’s never acknowledged me. He’s saying ‘fight this guy and I’ll fight you, win a world title I’ll fight you,’ he’s always run away. I think it’s come to this part of his career where there’s nowhere else for him to run so now he wants to fight.”
Even now, Khan makes it clear that he doesn’t think Brook is in his league. “It’s like I’m coming a level down taking this fight,” he said. “I fought the best around the world. I’ve conquered America and for me to give the British fans this fight, I am coming levels down because people want to see this fight. People want to see me punch him in the face, and that’s what they’re gonna get.”