When Amir Khan was asked about by FightHype about how this whole rivalry with Kell Brook started in the first place, Khan takes a trip down memory lane...
“I met him when I was in the Olympic camps. Even though we were around the same age he was in the junior camp, I was in the senior camp. In a way he was like my junior, and I used to use him as a sparring partner, used to tie one hand behind my back and they use to say to me ‘just use one-one-ones,’ use your jab against him...I’m serious, yeah, I was only allowed to use one punch.
“I used to remember, the Team England coaches would say to me ‘Amir, spar with Kell Brook, you’re only allowed to throw five right hands in this round. No more.’ So I used to school him when I would just play with him and that’s literally all I used to do, I used to literally play with him and hit him and make him miss and I was never allowed to open up because I was the better fighter and I used to always hurt him so I think that’s why he’s so bitter about them beatings he took off me. That’s why he’s like ‘I want some type of revenge, I want to fight Amir.’
“And he knows it’s big money. If we had taken this fight three ago it wouldn’t have been worth the money that it is now. Now is the time where I think the fight is gonna be big and it’s gonna be worth a lot of money...but let him get past his big fights. I want him to focus on what he has in front of him and then maybe that fight happens.
“But yeah, when we to sparred I would school him...he used to wear head guards and body protectors...and small gloves. I used to wear the big gloves so I don’t hurt him, no head guard so that way he had a chance...Yeah man, he was all padded-up from head to toe. He was padded-up head to toe, I swear he was, just so he doesn’t get beat. And I’d still get them shots in...
“I used to be in training camps in Sheffield. I did EIS - it’s the Olympic training camp - and he used to come in with is dad Terry, bouncing around. And after the first spar he never bounced around again.
“You know the keep saying ‘this never happened, that never happened,’ we were even in the same weight in the Olympics, or the Olympic camp. If it was true then they would’ve picked him for the Olympics. If it was true then he would’ve been national champion...every national championship I won. I won every national tournament I went to apart from the Olympics. I won every international tournament - the junior Olympics, world championships, the European championships, the Asia championships - I won every tournament. And not only that but winning the best boxer of the tournament as well, whereas Kell Brook was never there.
“So that’s like why when we sit there and he talks about it like he used to beat me up in sparring I just think ‘what are you talking about?!’ I should’ve recorded that, I should’ve recorded those videos when he was like a pillow, all padded-up and stuff. But look, if this fight happens I think it’s something I just put a stop to everything, I just put a stop to him and show the world who the best welterweight in the UK is.”