By Barry Holbrook: Former IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Amir ‘King’ Khan (34-5, 21 KOs) says he believes the 35-year-old Kell Brook (39-3, 27 KOs) no longer has the punch resistance that he once possessed and he’s predicting that he’ll knock out the former IBF 147-lb champion this Saturday night, February 19th at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England.
What makes one believe that Khan could be correct about his KO prediction is how Brook folded from getting hit by a non-hurtful-looking jab from WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford in his last outing in November 2020.
Crawford reached out and tapped Brook with a light right jab in the fourth round, stunning him badly and leading him to retreat to the ropes to cover up. The Omaha, Nebraska native then poured it on and got an immediate stoppage of Brook.
In Brook’s knockout loss to Gennadiy Golovkin in 2016, he quit in the fifth round and stopped punching despite not being hurt by any particular shot in the round. Brook left the referee Marlon Wright no choice but to halt the fight.
Kell Brook’s punch resistance is GONE
“I don’t think Kell has a chin or can take a good shot. I think his punch resistance is gone, literally gone. I honestly believe he is doing this fight just for the payday,” said Khan to Sky Sports on his belief that Brook is just coming back for a money-grab.
“Ten years of talking obviously, and we never met each other because our paths were different,” said Khan about him and Brook having traded trash talk for a decade.
Khan may be right about Brook’s punch resistance has disappeared. In addition to Brook’s knockout loss to Crawford, he was beaten down by Golovkin and Errol Spence Jr.
Those were arguably two of the four quality opponents that Brook has faced during his career. Best opposition Brook has fought as a pro:
- Gennadiy Golovkin – TKO 5 loss
- Errol Spence Jr. – KO 11 loss
- Terence Crawford – TKO
- Shawn Porter UD 12 win [*questionable]
Brook essentially quit in his losses to Golovkin in Spence, choosing to stop fighting. Kell took a knee in his 11th in his stoppage defeat against Spence in May 2017 in front of his boxing fans in Sheffield.
As I mentioned, in Brook’s loss to Golovkin, he stopped throwing punches back in the fifth round, leaving the referee no option but to stop the fight.
“I was campaigning in America, fighting over there, and he was more in the UK fighting,” said Khan. “We just kept missing each other. He was a weight above me all the time.”
Bad blood
“Now it comes a time where we managed to make the fight happen,” said Khan. “It’s a fight that the [British] public wants, and one of the reasons why I took the fight is the public demand. Wherever I would go, people would always say to me, ‘Amir, when are you fighting Kell Brook? Get that Kell Brook fight done.
“I think it’s about time to make it happen. The first press conference, when we were head to head, it showed that we don’t really like each other. I mean, it’s war. We’re going to go in there, and it’s going to be a fight.
“We’re not friends, and obviously, we don’t like each other. But I’m going to show why I’m the better fighter come fight night.
“When I do a clinical job on him and destroy him, people are going to realize that he was always smoke; he was always talk,” said Khan.
It’s good that Khan chose to give Brook the opportunity for this one final payday, considering that he’s been asking for the fight for his entire career.
