Kell Brook says Amir Khan showdown must happen this year before he hangs up his gloves
The two boxers have traded insults over the years, but that scrap could well happen now they are both under the Matchroom banner
KELL BROOK insists this MUST be the year he fights Amir Khan — or it will never happen.
The former IBF world welterweight champion, 31, plans to hang up his gloves at the end of 2018.
And he has pencilled in his retirement date after long talks with his family and wants no more than three fights before he walks away from the game.
The British fighters have traded insults for years.
But former WBA light- welterweight world champ Khan, 31, always insisted he would not give Brook a pay day by sharing a ring with him — until now.
After both were beaten last time out, the landscape has changed.
Eddie Hearn of Matchroom is now promoting both Brook and Khan — making fight negotiations far easier.
Brook makes his comeback in his hometown Sheffield after almost a year out of the ring.
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He is in with Belarusian banger Sergey Rabchenko, 32, a former European champion with more than 200 amateur wins.
This is up a step up to light-middleweight for Brook from his world champion days — and down from his disastrous brief flirtation with middleweight, where he was pulverised by Gennady Golovkin at the O2 in 2016.
Brook said: “I can see the finish line, I’ve probably only got a year. I feel like I’ve achieved a lot but I want to close the book with the Khan fight. It’s still the biggest fight out there, it has to happen.
“If it doesn’t happen in 2018, it won’t happen at all.
“I don’t want to be going on for years and years.
“I want to listen to my family — and to get out at the right time. It stresses me out thinking about fighting Amir. It’s now or never.”
And Brook reckons Khan is now the one who needs the fight.
Brook said: “I’ve gone past him in the boxing world now. We’ve done all the trash talk for years and still haven’t met in the ring.
“So there’s no point bad- mouthing each other any more. We’re in the same stable now so the fight is easier to make.
“Khan’s a good fighter but I want to prove I’m better. The aim is three fights this year — and I’d love Khan to be the third one to end 2018 with a blockbuster.”
Brook suffered horrendous eye socket damage against unbeaten middleweight Golovkin. Then he needed further surgery to his right eye when Errol Spence ripped the IBF title from him at Bramall Lane last May.
The big questions now are whether Brook still has the appetite and what effect two consecutive hammerings will have on him.
He said: “We’re going to find out. I’m not used to losing but I’ve had two in a row. The first one I jumped up to middleweight from welter against the most feared man in boxing in Golovkin and yes it was a risk.
“Fighting Spence was a different kettle of fish as it was at welterweight and the other eye got smashed in and I lost my world title.
“That really hurt me badly, it took me a long time to get over that.
“I know I’ve got a lot left in me but people are right to question what I’ve got left and how I will be after the injuries and the defeats.
“But I believe I am going to be the same fighter, I’ll be better with the bigger weight, which will bring the best out of me.
“But we can only see on Saturday night. I’m up for the challenge at the new weight.”