Amir Khan didn’t like the way Kell Brook went out on one knee in his 11th round knockout loss to Errol Spence Jr. on May 27 at Bramall Lane in Sheffield, England. Khan feels that if he fights Brook, he’ll just quit against him just like he did in his fight with Spence. It’s difficult to imagine Brook quitting against Khan like he did with Spence, but you never know.
Let’s put it this way. If Brook suffered another bad eye injury in a fight with Khan, I think he’d take a knee or have the fight halted in between rounds. I don’t think Brook would chance it. There would be too much risk of permanent eye injury.
Khan says he was ready to get into the ring and announce a fight against Brook if he’d beaten Spence on the night. But after Brook lost the fight by going down on one knee, Khan says he saw no point in going into the ring under those circumstances. Khan made crystal clear that he’s not interested in fighting Brook right now after the way he bowed out of the Spence fight. It’s possible that Khan could change his mind if Brook gets a win or two under his belt, but he might need to beat a quality fighter.
Khan says he doesn’t respect the way Brook quit in that fight by taking a knee, because he thinks he should have waited for the referee to stop the contest. Brook suffered an eye injury to his left eye that made him decide to have the fight stopped by taking a knee in round 11. Khan points out that in the past other fighters have fought with an eye problem, and they didn’t quit.
“I think he did quit, really,” said Khan about Brook to IFL TV. “Looking at that fight, he took a knee and didn’t want any of it. As a fighter, you fight. The referee has to stop the fight. You fight until you die,” said Khan.
Khan has taken a ton of heat from boxing fans for having a chin problem, but he’s never taken a knee before to get out of a fight. Khan’s knockout losses were ones in which he was badly knocked out in defeats against Briedis Prescott, Danny Garcia, and Saul Canelo Alvarez. Khan’s knockout losses to Prescott and Canelo were rather sudden and brutal.
It wasn’t a situation like with Brook in his defeat against Spence. Brook was slowly broken down by Spence from round 5 until the bitter end in the 11th, when Brook took a knee to get out of the fight. Brook also took a knee in the 10th round, but he got back up from that knockdown. It might have seemed easier for Brook once he took the first knee in the 10th. When the 11th round came about, Brook tried to fight back, but Spence immediately started to hammer him with big shots to the head.
Moments later, Brook took a knee when there was some distance between him and Spence. The referee was forced to halt the fight when Brook decided not to get back to his feet. Brook said after the fight that he was worried about his eye, because he had suffered a similar injury in his previous fight against Gennady Golovkin.
”With Kell Brook, he gave up on one knee,” said Khan. ”I don’t know if he wanted to propose or what. He should not go on one knee and raise his hand as if to say, ‘don’t hit me.’ That’s what he said, ‘Don’t hit me. Don’t hit me.’ I respect him for taking the fight, but I don’t respect the way he fought the fight.”
Brook didn’t have much choice in him quitting in the 11th. He knew his left eye was injured, and the fight had slipped away from him by the 11th. He wasn’t going to win the fight. Spence had taken over, and he was only getting stronger. If Brook had gone the final 2 rounds to make it through 12 rounds, he might have suffered worse injuries to his left eye. Spence probably would have knocked Brook out before the 12th, because he was loading up with every shot he threw. Spence smelled blood in the water and he wanted to finish Brook off with his big power shots.
“People say they want to see me in the ring with him. It would be the same result. Let’s see where this goes from here,” said Khan. “Nothing has been specific about it. If Kell had won the fight, I swear I was ready to go inside the ring and say, ‘Let’s get the fight on. Shake on it.’ I was ready to jump inside the ring. After that performance, I didn’t feel like I needed to get inside the ring,” said Khan.
Khan may wind up being sorry for not taking a fight with Brook if he doesn’t do it really soon. Both fighters are fading, even when they’re not technically old at 30 and 31. The welterweight division has moved on with better fighters now occupying the top spots. Brook has grown out of the 147-pound division, and he’s now moving up to 154 and facing a very uncertain future.
The chances are high that Brook won’t do well at 154. He’s aged enough to where he’ll not likely be able to beat the top fighters in that junior middleweight division. On top of that, the fighters in the 154lb division are bigger than Brook with larger frames. He’s not going to do well against Jermell Charlo, Demetrius Andrade and Jarrett Hurd. There’s a chance that Brook could turn his career around at 154, but I tend to doubt it.
“His fans before the fight in Sheffield were saying, ‘Amir, you should fight Kell.’ You know what they were saying after the fight? ‘Don’t give him a chance. Forget it. Forget Kell Brook. It’s done.’ These are his fans,” said Khan. I don’t know why people were so hard. Obviously, he took a knee and quit. I didn’t think people were going to take this much of an impact with him giving up as he did, because people were really upset. I can’t believe how his people took it. I thought people might be upset a little bit,” said Khan.
Khan is really kicking Brook while he’s down. In the same interview, Khan was undecided when asked if he would fight Errol Spence. If the shoe was on the other foot and it was he who had faced Spence and been stopped, you wonder if Brook would take it out on Khan? If Khan gets knocked by Spence, it would likely be in his usual style of being knocked out though.
Khan probably wouldn’t take a knee to get out of the fight. Who knows? An injury for Khan would change everything. When you’re dealing with an eye injury, I think it changes the perception of the fighter. They view life beyond boxing, and they obviously don’t want to be left with one working eye.
Khan says he’s far from done following his recent loss to Saul Canelo Alvarez from last year. Khan wants to come back from that defeat and fight on for another 2 years before hanging up his gloves. Khan vs. Brook will likely happen at some point, as long as the two don’t lose too many more fights. Brook has come up empty in his last 2 fights. Khan is better off having only lost his last fight, but that could very well change if he’s put in with someone good.
