Amir Khan vs Kell Brook is on Saturday, live on Sky Sports Box Office; this is the complex and bitter truth about the rivalry which will finally be settled...
Monday 14 February 2022 17:00, UK
The same story is remembered very differently but, 17 years later, recollected with equal venom by both fighters.
Voices are raised and anger flares when Amir Khan and Kell Brook, and their families, recall how they first crossed paths as teenagers leading to bitterness and jealousy that have lasted almost two decades.
Their intense feud will be settled on Saturday in Manchester, live on Sky Sports Box Office, but the root of this rivalry may never be agreed upon.
"We knew about each other," Brook tells Sky Sports. "He was winning everything, I was winning everything. I knew he was good and vice versa."
An infamous sparring session, as is so often the case, laid the foundations for a sour future relationship. Khan and Brook briefly shared a ring during a training camp for England Boxing in 2004, both aged 17.
Brook was focused on professional boxing, but had won an amateur tournament which gained him entry to the England set-up.
Khan was a prodigious talent, feted by Team GB, and would win a silver medal a few months later at the 2004 Olympics, becoming a national darling in the process.
"He was quiet," Khan remembers about Brook. "We never shared any words. Kell was only there as a number."
Brook says: "Amir was the year below me at school. He was boxing at the weight below me. So he wasn't really in my sights. We had a different mentality back then."
Khan: "Kell was briefly there. They let him spar just to check him out. But he took so much of a beating that he was never picked again.
"This is why Kell knows I've got one over him."
The picture that begins to form goes far deeper and is far more provocative than whoever gained the upper hand in sparring.
It is clear that each man resents his rival's route to the top. Each man perceives his rival as walking an easier road.
Brook's father Terry Thompson tells Sky Sports about how politics played a part: "I'll tell you what happened. They were of a similar pedigree. They both won the ABAs.
"Amir gave Team GB an ultimatum about the Olympics."
Brook nods: "I remember."
His father continues: "They didn't want to have egg on their face. So Amir went to the Olympics and Kell didn't."
Dominic Ingle, Brook's trainer, adds: "They had their favourites. Amir was the one getting a push. When you go to spar their best kids and get the better of them, they don't like it. A lot is invested into these kids. And the trainers think they are the best trainers.
"So imagine a kid from the Ingle gym comes and stands their best kid on his head. They question their own boxers, but also question themselves."
Khan shakes his head and claims: "I was the better fighter at the time. I was levels above him. Kell just can't let it go. He remembers, and it must tarnish him."
Terry Edwards was Khan's trainer on Team GB. He tells Sky Sports that Brook was never considered for the Olympics: "No. Not while I was there. He wasn't even in the team.
"For the Athens Olympics, he wasn't even mentioned as far as I know, and I was the head coach.
"I cannot recall Brook coming in."
Khan's recollection of sparring Brook is wholly different to Ingle's perception.
"I was told to only use one hand against him," Khan claims. "I was schooling him and had to take it easy on him.
"That was after doing rounds with two or three other people. That's all I remember about Kell.
"He admits that we sparred but doesn't admit that I was only allowed to hit him with one shot.
"I remember asking the coach: 'Shall I only hit him with the jab? The right hand? The left hook? The uppercut?'"
Months later, Khan won a silver medal in Athens.
Brook did not watch with any interest, he says: "I wanted to be a world champion. I got to 18 and turned professional. It wasn't my dream to go to the Olympics."
Khan erupts with laughter: "Because he never got picked! It was my goal because I knew I could achieve it. Qualification was the hardest bit. Kell won national titles but never internationally. I was the world amateur champion when I went to the Olympics."
Brook remembers that when they became professionals, still as teenagers, a magazine splashed their images next to each other and their collision course was set.
The early days of Khan and Brook's pro careers were poles apart and remain an obvious source of animosity.
Khan was heralded as a national icon, an Olympic medallist, and was under the microscope from the very first punches of his career. But with the attention came fame and opportunity.
Brook went under the radar and was forced to scrap his way into the limelight. But those ignored, forgotten fights gave him precious patience to improve.
"Khan needed a safety net of winning a medal," Brook's trainer Ingle says. "Kell had to go the hard way."
Brook agrees: "Amir has always had things his own way. He was top of the bill even on his debut.
"I came up the hard way, in the first fight of the night, taking float fights [time-fillers which are subject to be cancelled at short-notice], fights after the main event when everybody has gone home.
"I had to become mandatory. I got injuries. I have come through hell."
Ingle insists: "Amir couldn't do things the way that Kell has. Amir needed the seal of approval, the rubber stamp, the validation, that comes with the Olympics. It is a selling point which gets you past several hurdles.
"It is very hard to bring kids from the ground level to championship level. A kid from the Olympics is a better bet. But it doesn't make them a better fighter."
Khan believes his rivals are jealous of his success.
"I had more pressure on me," Khan says of his early rise. "Kell had it easy because there was no pressure when he was building his career with easy fights. I was always watched. I had to move through the ranks quickly."
Khan summarises the mutual dislike with Brook: "He hates me because I gave him a beating. That has stuck with him. Now he envies my career and wonders why he couldn't have done what I did."
There is a fundamental lack of attention and appreciation between Khan and Brook for each other's journeys.
Khan believes his stock is greater in the US. Brook thinks his own win over Shawn Porter in California is better than anything Khan has accomplished stateside.
Each has earned a spot in British boxing history - Khan as a former unified super-lightweight champion, Brook as a former welterweight champion.
They both dared to tackle greats in fights of incredible risk but lost to Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez and Gennadiy Golovkin respectively.
Finally the torment that has haunted both men for 17 years can be settled inside the ring. Perhaps only then will this uniquely visceral rivalry be settled.
Saturday February 19 in Manchester
Amir Khan vs Kell Brook
Natasha Jonas vs Ewa Piatkowska - WBO super-welterweight title
Frazer Clarke's pro debut
Saturday February 26 in Glasgow
Josh Taylor vs Jack Catterall - undisputed super-lightweight titles
Nick Campbell vs Jay McFarlane - Scottish heavyweight title
Saturday March 5 in Fresno
Jose Ramirez vs Jose Pedraza
Saturday March 12 in Newcastle
Savannah Marshall vs Femke Hermans - WBO middleweight title
Sunday March 20 in New York
Edgar Berlanga vs Steve Rolls
Keyshawn Davis
Xander Zayas
Watch Khan vs Brook on Saturday, live on Sky Sports Box Office, from 6pm. Book it via your Sky remote or book it online here. Non-Sky TV subscribers can book and watch it here.
