The dislike between Amir Khan and Kell Brook borders on HATRED

There is genuine dislike between Amir Khan and Kell Brook verging on HATRED… this bout will define each of the two fighters’ long careers and could prove their last stands at age 35 – may the best preserved man win

• Amir Khan and Kell Brook have talked about facing each other for over a decade
• Saturday’s fight could be the last dance for the two boxers, both aged 35
• Khan went on a punishing training regime in Colorado to get fit in time
• Brook went to extreme measures to make weight, producing ounces of sweat 

If not quite back to the old black and white, this one should be broadcast in a nostalgic shade of sepia.

Amir Khan and Kell Brook have been dancing around each other for so many years that their date night this Saturday may well be the last waltz for the pair of them.

Yet despite the risk that their grudge match could turn out to be a drudge of an affair ending in retirement all round, there is a fascination about seeing which of them still has the most razzle dazzle.

Amir Khan (left) and Kell Brook (right) have been talking about facing each other for years

Hence the Manchester Arena sold out within 48 hours of this fight for the ages being announced and the pay-per-view tills are rattling merrily.

In boxing, when it comes to putting on a show you don’t always need the best fighters in the world. Neither King Khan nor Special K are still of that realm. But in their parallel decline, at 35 and a long time out of the ring, they are an even enough match and fired by sufficient hostility that the best bet is them giving us a rollicking fight.

In this case the angry verbal exchanges may sound like the old-fashioned trash talk but are in fact heated expressions of genuine dislike verging on hatred. Listen to these examples.

Khan: ‘You’ve been jealous of me ever since I won my Olympic medal so I’m going to take you back to school like I did when sparring in the amateurs, then knock you out and finish your career.’ Brook: ‘You’ve never given me the respect I deserve for winning my world title so I’m gonna hunt you down, hurt you and beat you into retirement.’ Both: ‘This ain’t going the 12 rounds.’

And so on.

But the real question is waiting to be answered this weekend. Which of them can turn back the clock the furthest? To which the clue lies in this corollary: Who is the most damaged by all those brave and punishing fights gone by?

There is a genuine feeling of dislike verging on hatred between the two fighters

Of the several knock-outs each has suffered, Khan sustained the most brutal at the legendary fists of Canelo Alvarez. But the contributory factor to that roof-falling night is Las Vegas was his allegedly suspect chin as he was felled by a single albeit massive blow.

‘You can’t take it to the whiskers,’ says Brook with a mischievous chuckle.

The harm done to Brook by two dynamite punchers, Gennady Golovkin and Errol Spence Jr, was more profound. Golovkin fractured one of his eye sockets, Spence shattered the other. That is worrying for those of us who care for the long-term health of prize-fighters. Far more so for this warrior who found himself compelled to cease fire on both occasions.

‘It’s your punch resistance which has gone now and you keep taking a knee,’ says Khan with a wicked hint of mockery.

When it came to each of them chancing their arm against America’s brilliant pound-for-pound contender Terence Crawford in the most significant of their more recent fights over a year ago, the honours were dismayingly even.

Both started well but capitulated early. Khan unable to rise from a low blow in the sixth round. Brook overwhelmed in the fourth. Make of that comparison what you will.

Brook has admitted that the lightning-quick Khan ‘has faster hands than me’

What we know for certain is that Khan of Lancashire and Brook of Yorkshire have been as deadly serious in their preparations for this War Of The Roses as if they were coming to battle in their halcyon days of yore.

Khan’s insistence on a catch-weight limit of 10st 9 lbs – only two pounds above his welterweight preference but five pounds below Brook’s super-welterweight comfort zone – has pushed Special K to special efforts.

In a gross demonstration of how soaked in the lather of weight loss Brook has been his trainer Dominic Ingle was filmed drinking several ounces of his man’s sweat in their Sheffield gym.

Ugh, Dom. But point taken.

Khan forsook the homely delights of Bolton to set up camp on a chill mountain-side in Colorado. That Spartan regime has brought him back down to earthy northern England visually glowing with the physical benefits of training at altitude.

Brook insists it is Khan who kept the boxing world waiting for a fight which, even in its antiquity, will define each of their world championship careers despite there being no titles at stake. Khan avers that until now he was too busy strapping some of those glittering belts around his waist .

Brook went to extreme efforts to make weight for the fight, with his coach Dominic Ingle drinking several inches of his sweat

Khan trained in the Colorado mountains in a bid to trim down after letting himself go

At the conclusion to a face-to-face exchange of barbs for television Khan offered a handshake which Brook refused ‘until the fight is over.’

So the argument will be disputed by Khan’s lightning skills – his rival admits ‘he does have faster hands than me’ – and Brook’s non-stop punching of which his target says ‘there will be times when he turns it into a war.’

Beyond those styles it will be settled in favour of he who carries the least disadvantages into the ring. Brook expects to exploit Khan’s ‘glass jaw.’ But his own aggressive style has looked somewhat compromised in his last couple of outings by hints of a wariness almost inevitable in a man who whose very eyesight would be threatened by a recurrence of socket damage.

Brook says: ‘I must not lose because if I did I would have to walk around with my head down for the rest of my life.’ Khan says: ‘I cannot even contemplate losing what could be my last fight to an inferior boxer.’

Khan said he was too busy strapping title belts around his waist to fight nemesis Brook

Still, at this late hour, fascination abounds. Time to turn back the clock so far that the most appropriate attire for spectating might almost be black tie in a smoke-filled room.

May the best preserved man win. Which of them that will be is a close, tricky call given the Tardis of a time lapse.

But weighing into the equation the probability of some draining effect from Brook’s perspiring loss of poundage, it ls likely that Khan will claim the points decision as well as the bragging rights which both these wealthy warriors crave far more than another £5 million boost to their bank accounts.

Khan v Brook will be televised live this Saturday night on Sky Sports Box Office.

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