RIVALS: Amir Khan (left) and Kell Brook during the weigh in at the Exchange Hall, Manchester
NO BELTS on the line with both men coming to the end of their careers, facing one another in a catchweight contest at 149lbs, yet the Brook v Khan clash this weekend in Manchester has ignited more buzz and interest than many championship fights.
This is that rare thing though – a fight that needs no belts on the line to validate its importance or to make it compelling. What there is is a history of rivalry and bad blood, seasoned with plenty of nostalgia over the careers of two fighters who’ve climbed the heights and tasted the lows against the very best of their era.
This of course is a fight that should’ve taken place years before now. However it still retains sufficient interest to have sold out at the Manchester Arena in record time and it will doubtless attract a bounty of PPV buys over and above that.
JOHN WIGHT meets the former British champion whose greatest battles have been fought outside of the ring
From Barry McGuigan and Carl Frampton to Tyrone McKenna and Lewis Crocker, the city’s fighters carry a complex history into the ring, writes JOHN WIGHT
MARIA DUARTE recommends a British boxing biopic about the stormy relationship between Nazeem Hamed and his trainer Brendan Ingle