Kell Brook vs Amir Khan takes place on Saturday 19th February, 2022.
Better late than never as these two rivals finally get to square up finally and Patches feels it will be Khan who prevail to win via a decision.
The Story – Kell Brook vs Amir Khan
Both fighters, equal in age, but whose careers began in different circumstances.
Kell Brook started his boxing career in the well-respected camp of Brendan Ingle, now sadly deceased, in Sheffield when 12 years old. Ingle was well appreciated with a quality camp that included fighters such as Naseem Hamed, Johnny Nelson and Clinton Woods, who all won world titles.
Brook’s first professional fight was in 2004 and in 2014 he beat Shawn Porter on points for the IBF welterweight title.
Several big names appeared on the horizon but never materialised as a series of injuries and withdrawals took place.
In 2016, Brook jumped two weight divisions to fight a unification middleweight bout against Gennady Golovkin. Issuing a late statement, the WBA withdrew their sanction for the fight but the bout went ahead. After being rocked early, Brook put on a good enough fight until the 5th round when Golovkin poured on the pressure forcing Brook’s trainer Dominic Ingle to throw in the towel.
Brook lost his IBF welterweight title in his next fight against Errol Spence in 2017 but three wins in a row allowed him an opportunity to fight for the WBO welterweight title and in doing so a second World Title. However, in 2020 he lost the bout via TKO to Terence Crawford in the 4th round.
Born in the greater Manchester area of Bolton, Amir Khan began to box a year early than Brooks at the age of 11. He won Gold at the junior Olympics in 2003. In 2004 he was the only boxer to represent Britain in the (senior) Olympics, where he lost in the final but secured the Olympic Silver.
His various titles won and lost include the Commonwealth lightweight title in 2007, the WBO Inter Continental lightweight title in 2008, the WBA light-welterweight title in 2009, the IBF light-welterweight title in 2011. In 2014 he won the WBA International and WBC Silver welterweight titles.
Stepping up a division at about the same time as Brooks, Khan was knocked out by Canelo Alverez in the 6th round, with the WBC and The Ring middleweight titles up for grabs.
Two wins followed and another loss occurred when Terence Crawford won via TKO in the 6th round for the WBO welterweight title.
A last fight was a win in Saudi Arabia as a welterweight in 2019.
The Betting Angle – Kell Brook vs Amir Khan
There is no love lost between these two, Khan seems to be resented by Brook for his financial success while Brook was evidently schooled by Khan in their amateur days, something Brook vehemently denies.
Khan has gone on to celebrity status in the UK signing off huge financial deals while Brook seems to have always been on the outskirts of that big financial payday.
Judging a winner by their last fights is really difficult, Brook faced a classy opponent in Terence Crawford, who also defeated Khan, but looked so uncomfortable and guarded whilst Khan dispatched a very weak and under powered Billy Dib.
As the cliché goes “who wants it more will win it” but I’m even split on that reference as well as I think both really want to win this.
I have a slight preference for Brook on a personal level, but bets are not normally won via emotion and I have to look at the value and what I have seen over the years.
So, with that in mind I make Khan the fighter to beat and being the underdog that suits me fine in terms of value.
If Khan is to keep his cool and box and stay out of squaring up with Brook, I think he’ll take the fight to the scorecards and win via decision.
3 Units Khan points/decision.
2 Units Fight to go the Distance.
Let me know what you think and share your thoughts with me on Twitter a @BrenHbetsnet.
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