Kell Brook is a former IBF welterweight champion who has been beaten only by two elite opponents.

Terence Crawford still won’t consider a victory over Brook on Saturday night as his most significant of five welterweight wins. That distinction, according to Crawford, dates back to his welterweight debut more than two years ago.

“Given that Kell is a former champion, I wouldn’t say that’s my biggest win,” Crawford stated during a virtual conference call Monday. “You know, I still view the Jeff Horn fight as my biggest welterweight win, being that he was coming off an upset victory with Manny Pacquiao. So, I feel like he was the champion at the time. Kell Brook have nothing to lose, a lot to gain, so he really have nothing to offer me but a name. So, no, I wouldn’t say that’s my biggest victory at welterweight.”

Crawford dominated Horn, who was 18-0-1 at that time, and won the WBO 147-pound championship from the rugged Australian. Horn had upset Filipino legend Manny Pacquiao two fights earlier by unanimous decision to make a name for himself throughout the boxing world.

Crawford won every round against Horn on all three scorecards before dropping and stopping him in the ninth round of their June 2018 bout at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

The 33-year-old Crawford (36-0, 27 KOs), of Omaha, Nebraska, has stopped Jose Benavidez Jr. (27-1, 18 KOs), Amir Khan (34-5, 21 KOs) and Egidijus Kavaliauskas (22-1-1, 18 KOs) in his three subsequent title defenses at the 147-pound limit.

Gennadiy Golovkin (40-1-1, 35 KOs) and Errol Spence Jr. (26-0, 21 KOs) are the only opponents who’ve beaten Brook (39-2, 27 KOs).

Golovkin stopped Brook in the fifth round of their middleweight title fight in September 2016 at O2 Arena in London. Spence knocked out Brook in the 11th round of Brook’s following fight in May 2017 at Bramall Lane, an outdoor soccer stadium in Sheffield, England, Brook’s hometown.

Brook, 34, hasn’t competed at the welterweight maximum of 147 pounds since Spence stopped him almost 3½ years ago. He is a huge underdog entering his fight with Crawford, who is consistently listed as at least a 14-1 favorite.

Crawford-Brook will be the main event of an ESPN telecast in the United States (10 p.m. EST; 7 p.m. PST) and a Premier Sports 1 broadcast in the United Kingdom (12:30 a.m. GMT). 

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for krikya360.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.