Dominic Ingle has been in boxing all of his life.

His father Brendan, who is on the ballot annually to be inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame, was a former fighter before he became a decorated trainer and Dominic grew up in the sport.

He’s been around long enough to not really care what people think, to not really mind who he offends and to not to say things he doesn’t mean.

This weekend, he will be in the corner when Kell Brook fights Amir Khan and he is fully aware that both boxers are not what they once were. 

“They’re not at their peak,” Ingle stated. “You get these internet people saying, ‘You know, you come in to your peak in your thirties. You don’t. You’re coming past your sell by date and I’d like to think I’ve been around boxing long enough to notice a deterioration.

“[But] I don’t think Kell’s punch resistance has gone, and the way he’s trained I don’t think his desire to win or his fitness has gone. It’s like having an old car, they’re not as good as they were, they’re not at their peak and it will be a case of who’s weathered their careers better. 

“Khan’s had more wear and tear and I think people are basing this fight on Kell having bad eyes and Khan having more speed. Take the bad eyes out [Brook damaged eye sockets against Gennady Golovkin and Errol Spence] because they’re not going to go again. They’re not. The surgeon said they’ll never go again now but the factor is Khan isn’t as fast as he used to be. They’re talking about a Khan who was very fast in his youth, which he’s not anymore, and Kell can still punch and he is still banging. He hasn’t lost his power and he hasn’t lost his timing. We’ll only know about punch resistance once we get in the fight but looking at him sparring, even with bigger guys, Kell’s never wavered and Kell was good on the weight himself. So you know his chin’s good. For me, I think his chin’s still good, his power’s still there, he might be a bit slower than he normally is but considering his age and what we’ve put him through in camp, he’s hit targets of four or five years ago.”   

Brook is a 35-year-old 42-fight veteran who suffered damaging defeats to middleweight king Gennady Golovkin and brilliant welterweight Errol Spence, injuring both eye sockets in grueling losses. 

Khan has had wars in the gym, in the ring and he’s been badly knocked out, too.

“People keep banging on about Kell’s eye sockets but once you’ve had them welded back together, there’s no problem and they become stronger so if people are basing on his eye sockets going, they’re not going to go,” insisted Ingle, who said aside from Golovkin and Carson Jones – who Brook took lightly – Kell’s mileage is comparatively low.

There was also a hard fight with Michael Zerafa, who Brook assumed he’d blast out early but when he couldn’t get rid of the game Australian he started to labor through the rest of the fight. That was tougher than expected.

“Neither [Brook nor Khan have] lived the life right the way through,” Ingle continued.

Dominic didn’t work with Brook for the Zerafa fight or his last bout with Terence Crawford almost two years ago.

How does Ingle feel being reunited with his old star?

“People keep asking me this but realistically, when he boxed Crawford which was last November [2020], he was back in the gym probably from February, March the following year, so it’s never like he’s ever away, so it’s been no different,” Dominic added.

“There was never any animosity or any problem, it’s just normal. It’s just how it is. If I’m being honest, it wouldn’t have bothered me if I was or wasn’t [in the corner for Brook-Khan]. If I wasn’t involved, it wouldn’t have irked me. I just think that would have been the wrong choice for Kell. It wouldn’t have been, ‘Oh, I missed out on that’ because it’s not about me, it’s about Kell and what Kell’s got to do. It’s never been a thing for me thinking Kell’s got to get this fight. It’s a bit like Junior Witter and [Ricky] Hatton. It never particularly bothered me that fight never happened. It would have been great if it did but it’s not like I ever lost any sleep over it. It’s just another fight and when you think when Kell boxed Zerafa or he boxed Crawford and I didn’t train him it never particularly went well. People will say it didn’t against Spence and it didn’t against Golovkin but they were high-level fights, weren’t they?

“The problems he had in the lead up to the Spence fight affected his performance. I think he could have beat Spence if everything had gone right, if he’d been 100 percent, but that’s all water under the bridge and it’s about where he is now. He seems the happiest he’s been training, he’s been pushed hard, he’s trained hard, he accepted everything he’s had to do, he’s not cut any corners. With Kell, every session he’s done he’s been up for and he’s not said things aren’t working or I need to have a steady one today or he’s been frustrated with himself, he’s executed his training plan as he normally would, as he did against Shawn Porter and in his best fights. He’s been happy to do it.”

Team Brook trained for six weeks in Fuerteventura but Ingle said Brook has been preparing for this fight since last summer, and that Kell’s been enjoying life, too.

“He [Kell] was getting up in the sun and training every day and he was saying it was easy work but it is easy when you accept these are the things you’ve got to do and it’s a fight you want, of course it’s easy,” Ingle continued. “He was smiling every day. There was never a time when it was really hard work for him. He’s had about six to seven months of being in a very good place.”