Kell Brook on possible fight with Amir Khan: 'He’s a waste of time'

Kell Brook, a little bit like history, is back. Brook, looking on Saturday like the fighter he was a couple of years ago, resumes his pursuit of world titles.

He’s back in the mix, which means the long-proposed bout with Amir Khan is what it always was. A fantasy.

“He’s a waste of time,’’ Brook (39-2, 27 KOs) said when asked about Khan during a news conference after his seventh-round stoppage of American Mark DeLuca (24-2, 13 KOs) in Sheffield, England.

For years, Brook-Khan was a fight everyone in the U.K. wanted to see. It never happened. Then, Brook began working toward a comeback following successive losses to Gennadiy Golovkin and Errol Spence Jr.

The comeback reignited talk about Brook-Khan. However, Brook struggled through a couple of fights. There were doubts. There was a 14-month layoff. Then, there was DeLuca. Brook finished him and then went onto talk as though Khan possibility was finished, too.

“I’m after belts,’’ he said.

Khan (34-5, 21 KOs) doesn’t have a world title anymore. Instead, Brook talked about Liam Smith, who was at ringside in Sheffield. Smith might represent a quicker path to a ranking that would put him in line for a junior middleweight belt. Smith is ranked No. 2 by one of the acronyms

Nevertheless, promoter Eddie Hearn, of Matchroom Boxing, is not ready to dismiss the Brook-Khan possibility. Hope springs eternal.

“I’d jump at that fight this summer,’’ Hearn said. “It’s a huge fight. Just to be part of the build-up would be special, but we can’t waste our strategy and energy talking about it.”