Kell Brook frustrated Amir Khan fight won’t happen

IBF WELTERWEIGHT champion Kell Brook says he is frustrated that a fight with domestic rival Amir Khan has not been made.

Welterweight champion Kell Brook has been denied the fight he craves against Amir Khan. Picture: PA

Sheffield’s Brook retained his world strap with a four-round destruction of Jo Jo Dan a week ago and immediately called out regular verbal sparring partner Khan.

The two have spent the week trading barbs – with Brook offering a 13 June date at Wembley for an all-British bout – but Khan made it clear he was going his own way when announcing his next opponent on Thursday. The Bolton man said he will face Chris Algieri in New York on 30 May and Brook cannot understand the move.

“If someone said to me you can get five million quid, a world title fight at Wembley with a fight that every fan wants to see, it’s a no-brainer for me,” said 28-year-old Brook.

“He’s fighting Algieri who didn’t win a round against (Manny) Pacquiao, a feather puncher, not a big puncher. It doesn’t make sense to me. I’m world champion, I’m calling him out, we want the fight, there’s a word title and a bagful of money and it doesn’t make sense that he’s fighting this guy who’s bringing nothing to the table. He’s said he’ll fight me before but when it comes to it, I don’t get why he doesn’t want to fight me. Yes (I feel frustrated), wherever I go it’s always Amir Khan, when are you going to fight him?

“He’s delicate around the whiskers, he knows I’m a big strong welterweight and he knows I’m coming for that chin of his.”

Khan disagrees with Brook’s assessment of his next opponent, though. He said: “You can class him as an A-class opponent.”

Algieri’s only defeat in a 21-fight professional career came last November, when he was knocked down six times en route to a heavily lopsided points defeat by Filipino superstar Pacquiao. Yet in his previous bout, the 31-year-old American upset the odds to win a split decision over the much-feared Ruslan Provodnikov and take the Russian’s WBO light-welterweight title. Khan, himself a former champion at 140lbs, added: “He has fought decent opponents, beaten decent opponents, and just fell short against Manny Pacquiao, which is an A star opponent. He’s a decent boxer overall. He knows how to box and knows how to move well.

“He takes a decent amount of shots and he’s got a decent amount of power, so I think overall it’s going to be a good fight for me. Hopefully this can lead me on to the bigger fights in the future, which is what I’m looking at.”