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In his latest column for The Sun, promoter Frank Warren has taken aim at a pair of his former clients.
First, Amir Khan:
I just wish to God Amir Khan would stop bleating about his defeat to Lamont Peterson, stop playing the blame game and get on with his career.
First of all we heard moans about the referee Joe Cooper for deducting Khan two points for pushing during his world title defence — he warned him enough about it.
Now, we have this nonsense about a mystery man at ringside in Washington DC and allegations of dodgy scoring that have yet to be proved.
To be fair, this was written before the "shocking revelation" that the cat in the hat was, in fact, an IBF official of some sort. But Warren is saying what a lot of people are saying: Get over it, move on, book your next fight, stop whining.
He also took a quick stab at Kell Brook and Matchroom Boxing:
Kell Brook left me to get a quicker route to a world title fight, yet nearly a year later he is still to fight for one.
The word is that he could face Ricky Hatton's younger brother Matthew on March 17 in Sheffield in the 'big showcase' his promoter promised.
Last year I offered him the Interim WBO or WBA world titles or there was a world title opportunity against the beatable IBF champion light-middleweight Cornelius Bundrage.
Brook has not made any major strides with Matchroom. That's a fact, and as much as this may indeed be sour grapes from Warren, who was a bit blindsided by Brook's decision to defect, I don't think you can really argue that Brook's fights with Lovemore N'dou, Rafal Jackiewicz and Luis Galarza, and now maybe Matthew Hatton, are quite what he left to do. Warren could have put together pretty much all of those fights.
At the same time, no, I don't think Warren would have had Brook in a title fight at 147 by now, either. The political climate at 147 is not friendly to a guy like Kell Brook at the moment, and I don't think turning down a possible fight at 154 with Bundrage (which, you know, who knows how possible that really was) is some sin or proof of Brook's foolishness. Brook doesn't fight at 154.