Kell Brook 'due more respect' ahead of Jo Jo Dan defence

Kell Brook wants to make a statement against Jo Jo Dan on Saturday and earn the respect he feels is overdue.

Sheffield's IBF welterweight champion makes his first defence live on Sky Sports this weekend, more than seven months after taking the title from Shawn Porter in front of a partisan American crowd.

That victory was the realisation of a lifelong dream for Brook, but just weeks later he was lying in a hospital bed in Tenerife with career-threatening stab wounds to his thigh.

And that incident, he believes, overshadowed what should have gone down as a defining performance.

"I don't think that I got enough credit for the win," Brook said. “Before the fight people were saying I hadn't been in with anyone and I said after I beat Shawn Porter, ‘the Mike Tyson of the 147lb division’, give me the respect I deserve.

"Everybody agreed, but I still don't really feel I have had the respect for going into the guy's backyard and doing what people said I couldn't do and beat him, school him."

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Brook's weight class means there are huge fights out there in the future - the likes of Keith Thurman, Amir Khan and even the winner of Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao have been mentioned as potential opponents.

But the 28-year-old knows from his own success against Porter the threat posed by mandatory challengers, so his sole aim for now is clear: deal with Dan at his home city's Motorpoint Arena.

"Mandatories come along and you have to deal with them,” he said. "He's earned his position like I did against Porter, so he gets his chance to take that title off me - but that's not happening.

"I am not looking past him, but I know that there are massive fights out there for me in the division and after I take care of business tonight, I am free to fight anyone."

Watch Brook v Dan live on Sky Sports 1 from 7.30pm on Saturday. The bill also features Frankie Gavin, Adam Etches and Gavin McDonnell.