Khan says Kell Brook should retire to avoid a third loss

By Boxing News - 07/15/2017 - Comments

Image: Khan says Kell Brook should retire to avoid a third loss

By Scott Gilfoid: Amir Khan thinks it’s time for former IBF welterweight champion Kell “Special K” Brook to hang up his gloves and walk away from boxing for the sake of his eye health. Khan says he would give Brook (36-2, 25 KOs) a third loss if the two of them fought each other, and it would be bad for his health to take the fight.

Brook has suffered bad eye injuries in his last 2 fights in losing to Errol Spence Jr. and Gennady “GGG” Golovkin by stoppages. Brook’s latest defeat came against Spence in an 11th round TKO defeat on May 27 at Bramall Lane in Sheffield, England. Brook took a knee in the 10th and 11th rounds. The fight was stopped in the 11th after Brook took a knee and chose not to get back to his feet.

“I’m very surprised he is carrying on because he can harm himself and harm his career. If I was him, or his advisors, I would tell him to retire and enjoy life,” said Khan to Sky Sports News HQ. “After two big losses, two bad losses as well, if he’s thinking about fighting me that could be a third big loss and bad for his health,” said Khan.

What you have to worry about with Brook quitting in his last 2 fights is the potential for him to quit against Khan or whoever he faces. When the going gets tough, will Brook revert to form and quit like he did in the past? Brook didn’t officially quit in his 5th round knockout loss to Gennady Golovkin last September. Technically, Brook’s trainer Dominic Ingle threw in the towel in round 5 to save Brook from getting hurt by Golovkin. But the reason why Ingle tossed the white towel of surrender into the ring was because Brook had stopped throwing punches. I don’t know about you, but when a fighter stops throwing punches, they’ve quit. As such, Brook has quit in his last 2 fights due to eye problems.

A third eye injury could lead to another quit job by Brook. If Brook gets hit in the eye, there’s the potential of him worrying about the eye and not fighting as hard as he needs to for him to win. It’s a natural thing for Brook or anyone with a serious injury to do. Once a fighter like Brook starts worrying about his eye, he could give less than his best inside the ring. Does Brook take a knee once he gets hit in the eye in his next fight? I don’t know. But if Brook does quit again, then he needs to think about retiring from boxing. I’m just saying.

I hate to say it, but I think Brook is possibly one eye injury away from retirement. If Brook suffers a third consecutive eye injury loss in his next fight, it’s hard to imagine him wanting to continue his boxing career unless it’s to fight someone like Khan in a cash out fight. Brook needs to take a tune-up fight to test out his eyes to see if they can hold up under the wear and tear of a fight.

Khan isn’t a big puncher, but he’s good slapper. If Khan can slap Brook enough times to the head, he could cause him problems. If Brook’s eyes aren’t able to hold up under Khan’s slaps, he might need to take a knee to get out of the fight.