Kell Brook retires from boxing.
The 36-year-old Briton, who was world welterweight champion between 2014 and 2017, made the announcement in an interview with The Sunday Telegraph newspaper: “It’s everything for me. I will never box again.”
Thus his last fight was a win against old rival Amir Khan in a revenge duel in February.
“The truth is that boxing is a very difficult and dangerous sport,” Brook said in the interview published Saturday, “one where you can get killed in the ring and I end up now with all my faculties intact.”
The highlight of Brook’s career came when he beat Shawn Porter to be named world champion in 2014. Although he was beaten by Gennady Golovkin, Errol Spence Jr. and Terence Crawford he received accolades in the process.
Brook seemed headed for retirement, but his resilience eventually led to the fight against Khan, which he won emphatically in the sixth round and walks out 40-3.
“I needed the fight with Khan, I needed to resolve the feud, the rivalry,” he said. “I don’t have any bad feelings left. I think when you’ve been in the ring with someone, that comes out.”
Brook indicated that he has no desire to manage or train young fighters.
“I just want to be remembered,” he added, “as a fighter who would fight anyone, fear no one and give the fans what they wanted.”