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Boxing

17th Feb 2022

Khan and Brook exchange homophobic slurs during heated press conference

Callum Boyle

The slurs followed after Khan claimed that Brook had made a racist comment towards him

The press conference ahead of Amir Khan and Kell Brook’s fight on Saturday descended into chaos after the pair exchanged a number of homophobic slurs towards each other.

Khan and Brook have had a long-lasting rivalry which has dated back to their amateur boxing days and tensions showed no signs of slowing down on Thursday ahead of their meet at the Manchester Arena.

But in the latest of fiery face-off’s between the two the conference spiralled out of control after Khan claimed that Brook had directed a racist comment towards him – questioning why he had made comments about smashing in his ‘poppadom chin.’

The comment came after Brook had initially revealed that the rivalry between the two had started when the two shared a room together whilst they were both on the England team, but Khan quickly denied that.

“That doesn’t sound right… don’t laugh. Listen, I haven’t shared a room with you, don’t be saying that. That doesn’t sound right, Kell, especially with the stuff I’ve heard.”

Angered by what he heard, Brook then promptly responded: “It’s you who was on gay sites ‘w****** yourself off.”

Despite attempts to diffuse the situation, the pair continued going back and forth between each other, with the Bolton-born Khan then saying: “You know I saw a video where you said that you were going to smash that poppadom chin in. You said that, didn’t you?”

Brook then asked if Khan was accusing him of being racist, to which he replied: “Yeah, the way you sad that was really sad. You shouldn’t have said that.”

Khan then proceeded to look ahead to this weekend’s meet between the pair in which he insisted that his only concern was the long-term health of his arch rival.

“I’m worried about a few things,: he told Sky Sports. “I’m worried about Kell’s health after the beating that I’m going to give him.

“The beating he’s going to get is something he’s never got before and all the talking as well, we’re going to definitely put him in his place.

“10 years this has been going on for, this is my time to put him in his place. One thing I want to say, I think Kell has been very obsessed with my career, I think he’s a fanboy, that’s the honest truth.

“I’ve been in his head for so long, probably need to start paying rent. We’ll go in there, put the words to a side, I can’t wait to get into the ring and put it to him.”

But Brook came back fighting and insisted he will get the knockout win whilst also revealing he may weigh in above the catchweight of 149kg – something he would receive a heavy fine for.

“We’re three sleeps away, he’s definitely going to sleep on Saturday night when I smash him in,” he said.

“We’re days away, he can say what he’s saying, after Saturday, nobody will care, you can go to Dubai and carry on doing what you’re doing.

“Seven months we’ve been talking about this fight, I’ve been training since. It was agreed and then he came back to the table to change the contract again, it seems to be that he has only taken this fight because he thinks I’m half broken.

“He’s made a massive mistake. I’ve been in Fuertaventura for six weeks, the world is going to see me going in there and destroying him.”

The two will face-off for one final time on Friday when they meet at the weigh-in before Saturday’s fight.

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