Amir Khan v Kell Brook - Finally

[Master]

Inside Amir Khan's training camp: Old foes, sparring with Terence Crawford and 'total privacy'

Amir Khan is well known for flitting between trainers during his career, but teaming up with the man who masterminded his last defeat is an unlikely switch.

Brian 'Bomac' McIntyre will be the eighth trainer former world champion Khan has had in his corner since turning professional in 2005.

The American trains Terence Crawford, who beat Khan in the sixth round of a WBO welterweight world title defence in April 2019.

Khan, 35, now needs McIntyre to help him find his old spark for the high-voltage welterweight contest against Kell Brook in Manchester on 19 February.

The late Oliver Harrison was in charge for Khan's first 17 fights before being sacked and replaced by the late Dean Powell before Jorge Rubio oversaw Khan's shocking 54-second defeat by Breidis Prescott.

Freddie Roach then trained Khan for his greatest nights, but since they split in 2012 the Bolton boxer has worked with Virgil Hunter, Joe Goossen and Clarence 'Bones' Adams. Under Roach's four-year tutelage, Khan won the WBA super-lightweight title against Andriy Kotelnik and made five winning defences, including a sensational Las Vegas points victory against Marcos Maidana.

The fight against Sheffield's Brook finally takes place when both are considered past their prime. But McIntyre insists Khan can rediscover the Roach years, when he was one of boxing's biggest stars.

"It is so far, so good. Amir is looking good in camp and I am very pleased with where he is right now," McIntyre tells BBC Sport.

"Personally, I think he can get back to where he was. He has been showing signs of Amir Khan from the days when he was fighting Maidana and other guys.

"His hands were fast and his feet were fast. I have been seeing that in the last few sparring sessions.

"If he can do that in the rest of this camp, have a great performance against Brook and win, he can be considered one of the top in what weight class he wants to go to. But I wouldn't advise him to go any higher than welterweight.

"We are making sure he can do the things that we ask of. His hand speed, foot speed and diet has to be right for Amir to perform to his highest peak."

Khan's wife Faryal Makhdoom brought the partnership together when she called 'Bomac' at his home in Omaha, Nebraska.

Did he have any doubts about taking Khan on after Crawford accused him of quitting in their fight at Madison Square Garden?

"Not at all," adds McIntyre, who also saw Brook close up when Crawford beat him 15 months ago.

"What I wanted to do was challenge myself and my team to see if we can get Amir back to where he used to be.

"The first thing we did was get Amir into the shape so he can accomplish what he wants to do in the ring.

"That was the most important thing. Getting his body together, getting his diet together, bringing his weight down and making sure he can move on his feet.

"Once you get to that point we start to go over Brook more. I have studied Brook a lot and he won't be no different from this time to last time."

The undefeated Crawford, 34, has helped in camp too, sparring with Khan in Omaha and Colorado Springs, where the team is based at the foot of the Rocky Mountains.

McIntyre adds: "From what Terence told me, he thought Amir was looking better.

"I respect those thoughts and comments. You want to hear things like that and what he needs to do more from the best in the world.

"You have to understand that Terence fought Amir and Brook, dominated both and he knows best."

Khan has also called on help from his relative and fighter Abdul Khan. At the very start of his professional career, Abdul will fight on the Khan-Brook undercard. After training in Omaha with Amir, Abdul says he was blown away by his cousin's focus under McIntyre.

"Amir has put in so much effort," he reveals.

"I felt like he was rolling back the years - he was locked in to what he was doing and totally focused, with his mind fully on the job. He's ready to go and knock Kell Brook out."

Olympic silver medallist Khan, who has won 34 of his 39 professional fights, has rarely trained at home in Britain.

That came as a relief to McIntyre, who appreciates how much the contest - where all 20,000 tickets were sold in just 10 minutes - means to British fight fans.

McIntyre explained: "I am glad that we are over here training in the middle of the United States. We have total privacy.

"We can walk into the 24 Hour Fitness gym and Walmart where nobody will know us.

"Nobody knows who Amir is and wants to take pictures and autographs and things of that nature.

"I know the fight is one of the biggest in Britain and I'm excited for my team and myself to be a part of it.

"Once we get this win, it will go down in history that our team came over there, upset Kell Brook and Amir looked like he did in 2010, 2011 and 2012."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/boxing/60187666

[Mark TKO]

This will be decided by who's in the best shape on the night and has least rust.

[Master]

This is why I think Brook will win because he was in shape as recent as November when he faced Crawford.

Khan has essentially been semi-retired since Canelo knocked him out and he will not get in shape, no matter how great he thinks his training camp has been.

My only concern was the way Brook folded so easily against Crawford, he normally has more resilience as he showed against Golovkin and Spence. Khan is not a huge puncher but his fast hands and footwork will cause problems until he gets caught by Brook.

They genuinely do not like one another and they are both at the ends of their career so this could make it a good contest.

[Mark TKO]

I hope it does go that way - on a free to view stream

[Master]

HAD IT ALL Amir Khan vs Marcos Maidana one of the greatest fights Joe Cortez ever refereed – and he’s been in with Mike Tyson, Roberto Duran and Manny Pacquiao

Esteemed referee Joe Cortez believes Amir Khan’s victory against Marcos Maidana ‘was one of the most outstanding, skilful and exciting’ fights he saw in a 60-year career.

The 2004 Olympian returns to the ring this weekend in Manchester to face bitter rival Kell Brook in a fight neither man can afford to lose, live on talkSPORT.

Khan has seen and done it all across a career which began as a professional in 2005 and Saturday’s main event will be the 40th time he makes the walk to the ring.

Perhaps the only thing which has evaded Khan is a genuine domestic grudge match, although that will be settled one and for all when he is locked in with Brook at the AO Arena.

Cortez can pay testament to the skill level and ability of the 35-year-old, having witnessed him defend his WBA light-welterweight title at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas in 2010.

Despite having officiated fights featuring Mike Tyson, Roberto Duran and Manny Pacquaio, the International Boxing Hall of Fame alumni had incredibly high praise for this particular contest.

Cortez told ESPN in 2018: “During my 60 years linked to the sport of boxing, I have seen and refereed many great fights, but if I had to pick the top 20 championship fights that I refereed, I would say the Khan-Maidana bout in 2010 was one of the most outstanding, skilful and exciting. Lots of heart, blood, sweat and tears. That fight had it all.

It really did, with Khan flooring his opponent with a shot to the liver in the first round.

“You have to take into consideration that in 2010, both Maidana and Khan were in the prime of their careers. They were both outstanding, had great stamina, great reach, great reflexes, great punching power. It was really outstanding. Fans at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino were in for a treat.

“It was a fight that was very intense in some rounds, because both fighters were hurt in different occasions, especially in the first round, when Khan sent Maidana down with a left hook to the liver.

“I was surprised how Maidana was able to get off the canvas. It was a devastating punch that most fighters would have stayed down.”

The Argentine is one of the hardest punchers of his generation and fought back valiantly in the later rounds to stun the Brit badly.

Despite the back and forth battle, Cortez spoke highly of Khan and his powers of recovery, which are often overlooked with ‘King Khan’ too easily dismissed as ‘chinny’ by detractors.

Yet he showed great heart, skill and power to claim a unanimous decision win and deny ‘El Chino’ and his marauding blows.

Cortez added: “Khan is a great puncher and has great speed. In most cases, when a fighter has punching power, they don’t have great speed. Amir has both, just like Mike Tyson, who had great speed and great punching power.

“Maidana, with his experience and determination, got up from the canvas when he was in danger and continued the rest of the fight like a real champion.

“As Maidana was rocked in the first round, Khan was to get his fair share of huge blows. In the sixth round, Maidana proved it.

“I always knew that Khan had a questionable chin, and he got hit hard. He has always been able to weather the storm, with the exception of when he got KO’d by Breidis Prescott a couple of years back.

“But he always seems to get out of those dangers when he’s hurt, and he has great experience and great footwork, plus him being a masterful resourceful fighter, Khan was able to weave and backtrack to be able to survive, and he did that very well. I was surprised how he was able to stay on his feet.

“When you see a fighter that is a little bit hurt, you throw punches from all angles, as was the case with Maidana. Of course, the duty of the referee is to enforce the rules, so when I saw Khan got hit behind the head on several occasions, I knew they weren’t intentional. It was in desperation to try to put away Khan, and he would try to start throwing punches to those dangerous areas where you hit punches behind the head.

“Had he put Khan down with those punches around the head, I would have had to determine if it was caused by Khan turning his head trying to get away from those punches or was it an intentional punch. Thank god it was not intentional, so therefore, it made it a lot easier for me to handle. Had Amir gone down because of that punch, I would have taken a different action depending on how severe the blow to the head was.

“I think Amir pulled it out, it was a back-and-forth mano-a-mano match. The 12th was a hard round to score. I don’t think that all three judges had it the same in the last round, because it was that kind of a fight, and it was an outstanding performance by both fighters.

“The scores of 114-111 twice and 113-112 were right on the spot.”

The fight was called one of the ‘fights of the decade’ by Oscar De La Hoya and the Boxing Writers Association of America awarded it Fight of the Year.

Let’s hope for a banger on Saturday night.

https://talksport.com/sport/boxing/1...anny-pacquiao/

[Master]

AMIR KHAN and Kell Brook’s bitter pay-per-view grudge match is being sweetened by some tasty undercard bouts.

Underrated and understated Germaine Brown gets a crack at the English super-middleweight title as he continues to go about his hurt business quietly but impressively against champ Charlie Schofield.

Tokyo 2020 bronze winner Frazer Clarke makes his heavyweight debut against a TBC opponent, as he aims to follow in the footsteps of Team GB giants Anthony Johsua and Joe Joyce by grabbing an Olympic and becoming a pro star.

At 30-years-old already, with a long and impressive amateur record and thousands of rounds sparring AJ in the bank, Clarke will be fastracked by Boxxer and Sky Sports toward major fights.

Viddal Riley - the cruiserweight who found fame by coaching internet sensation KSI for his celebrity boxing bouts - looks to improve on his record with a bout against journeyman Willbeforce Shihepo.

Brilliant brothers Adam (lightweight) and Hassan (welter) Azim will feature against lesser foes as they continue to show improvements out of Shane McGuigan’s fine young stable.

And Abdul Khan, cousin of Bolton’s favourite headliner, gets to open the show for his favourite relative and manager.

After failed world title bids at super-feather and lightweight, Liverpool queen Natasha Jonas jumps up to super-welterweight to get a crack at the WBO world title against Chris Namus.

The 37-year-old mother has suffered harsh decisions in her two most high profile bouts - against Terri Harper and Katie Taylor - so will be desperate to finally grab a world honour.

At middleweight 23-year-old Brad Rea targets 12-0 in a 50-50 battle with Ireland’s Craig McCarthy.

And finally, Manchester boxing legend Ricky Hatton will make an appearance at his local arena in the corner of his charge Ibrahim Nadim.

Amir Khan vs Kell Brook (catchweight 149lbs)
Natasha Jonas vs Chris Namus (WBO world super welterweight title)
Charlie Schofield vs Germaine Brown(English super middleweight title)
Bradley Rea vs Craig McCarthy (Middleweight)
Frazer Clarke vs TBA (Heavyweight)
Viddal Riley vs Willbeforce Shihepo (Cruiserweight)
Adam Azim vs Jordan Ellison (Lightweight)
Hassan Azim vs MJ Hall (Welterweight)
Abdul Khan vs Ricky Starkey (Lightweight)
Ibrahim Nadim vs Taka Bembere (Super featherweight)

https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/17660...d-fight-times/

[Master]