Kell Brook: Boxer discusses comeback to prove he is still the 'Special One'

There has been speculation that Brook, who beat Amir Khan in Manchester just over two years ago, could be tempted back for bouts against the likes of Chris Eubank Jnr, Liam Smith, or Conor Benn.

The Sheffield welterweight has 'itchy knuckles' - but he has to be 100 percent motivated to fully commit.

For him, a big domestic tear-up would bring a comparison with the day Marvin Hagler took on the returning Sugar Ray Leonard, billed as The Super Fight, in April 1987, for the WBC and The Ring middleweight titles.

Leonard was coming back after two years of retirement and would ultimately shade a split decision victory.

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Brook, who turns 38 in May, would enjoy the thrill of a British version of that.

In an interview with fellow boxing enthusiast Nicki Smedley, he insisted that money would not be the motive.

Asked what was truly in his heart, the Dore-based former world champion said: "The challenge. People are saying I can't do this, and I like to prove them wrong and do it.

"That is what my heart is saying - it is in me, it's in my blood, I have done it all my life.

"Boxing is my life and it is hard to close the door on it. You see these fighters and you think I can beat all these guys."

Brook insisted: "It is not about the money, I have got enough money, it's about the challenge, it's about seeing what I have got left, and I believe I have still got it all left.

"I believe 100 percent I can beat all the fighters named today."

Brook has an appetite for the hours of gym work and sparring that would entail.

"There is nothing better to do than training hard, and recovering and feeling good about yourself."

The Sheffielder said he thought he could make a comeback that will be remembered.

"Having two years off...a bit like when Leonard beat Hagler. People will think: 'I don't think he has got it anymore he's had two years off' and then I go in and show the master class. And show I am still the Special One," he addded.

Asked by Smedley if harboured any regrets in his glittering 43-fight career, Brook indicated that taking the Gennadiy Golovkin fight in 2016 was a possible miss-step.

The South Yorkshireman was stopped in round five at the O2 Arena, London.

But he added that he was fighting him at the Kazakhstan iron man in his prime.

"It is all about before you hang those gloves up seeing how good you really are" Brook told Smedley, at an event to cherish the memories of Smedley's brother Luke and boxing genius Brendan Ingle.

"I came up short that night but I got in with the very best at that time in my career and I never shied away from a fight."

Brook confessed he was not in a great place when he was stopped in four rounds by American Terence Crawford in Las Vegas in 2020.

"It was full lock-down, we couldn't get to certain places, training was awkward and hard.

"I am not making any excuses he was an unbelievable pound-for-pound (great) and you'd put him number one. He is like a surgeon he is very sharp, very clever."

Not everyone agrees with the notion of a Brook return.

Former WBA super-middleweight champion George Groves says he should stay at home rather than return to the ring.

He said on the grosvenorcasinos.com website: "You’ve got to let it go, even when he was fighting I thought he wasn’t the fighter he once was, he needs to give up the dream and find a new passion that gives him that new lease of life, father time catches up with all of us and time moves on.

"You can’t be the man forever. If he needs to be involved I’m boxing, get down the gym and coach some of the youth, the next generation, they’ll be looking up to Kell, he’s a former world champion," he said.

"That will give him that comforting feeling of achievement. But the boxing dream needs to go now because Eubank isn’t interested in fighting Kell as long as the Benn fight is there. Commercially I don’t think there’s enough money in it for Eubank."