By Edward Chaykovsky
IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook (36-0, 25KOs) has no love for his domestic rival, Amir Khan (31-4, 19KOs).
Brook has attempted to get Khan in the ring for the last few years. He's been unable to do so. The two sides were in talks earlier this year for a summer showdown.
Their negotiations broke off, unexpectedly, when Khan announced that he was moving up to a catch-weight of 155-pounds to challenge Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez for the WBC middleweight title. The fight took place in May and Khan was brutally knocked out in the sixth round.
Brook is taking things a steps further next Saturday night at the O2 Arena in London. He is moving up to the full middleweight limit of 160-pounds to challenge Gennady 'GGG' Golovkin for the IBF/WBA/IBO/WBC middleweight belts.
When he announced his fight with Golovkin, Khan took to the social networks to take a quick swipe at his rival.
"Amir Khan said he was '100 percent' behind me, but in the next breath he said, 'Just don’t pull out', making out I would make up some excuse and pull out closer to the fight. Basically Khan is a joke to me. I’ve heard that as a person he’s not a bad kid, he’s nice guy, but when we’re talking business, we’re talking fighting, I’ve got to wash my hands with him because he drives me crazy," Brook told Boxing News Magazine.
"I’m fighting the most feared man on the planet, and I don’t know what Khan’s latest excuses are for not fighting me before this, but it’s just pathetic. As fighters we want to be involved in the best fights that we can be while we’re in the sport, and this fight against Golovkin shows exactly what I’m about. I’m giving the fans what they want because they pay our wages, I want to give them the best fights I can."