For over six years, British boxing fans have clamoured for a domestic welterweight superfight between Amir Khan (34-5, 21 KOs) and Kell Brook (39-2, 27 KOs) only to be left disappointed every time it looked set to finally enter concrete discussions.
In a recent interview with Fight Hub TV, Khan has claimed that, contrary to what many fans believe, it is Brook who has made things difficult, not Khan.
Khan, whose last bout was a fourth-round stoppage of Australia's Billy Dib in Saudi Arabia last July, used the interview to take further potshots at "Special K" before revealing his preferred opponent for a 2021 return to the ring.
He said: “At this time we’re talking to the likes of Kell Brook, there’s Manny Pacquiao. My first choice would be Manny Pacquiao, he’s such a legend in the sport.
“Kell Brook, obviously he’s not going nowhere. He’s British. And the thing is, when me and Kell Brook started to negotiate the fight, he then moves up to 154.
"The reason I signed up with Eddie Hearn was to get that Kell Brook fight. The third fight on that contract was probably the Kell Brook fight after the (Phil) Lo Greco fight and the (Samuel) Vargas fight. But then he’s gone up to 154, and I found it quite strange because I thought we were gonna fight each other, and that’s the reason why I went on and fought Crawford.
“It made people feel like it’s me, the one running away from him. But it’s not because it’s Kell Brook who has, in a way, has not said he wants to fight me but moves up a weight and just avoids the fight, keeps avoiding the fight in different ways, you know, instead of verbally saying ‘I don’t want to fight you.’ He’s avoiding it by moving up in weight.
"By moving up in weight he shows he doesn’t want to fight me.”
Brook was last in action in February of this year, halting Mark DeLuca in the seventh in Sheffield.