Kell Brook has announced his retirement from boxing, bowing out after winning his grudge match against Amir Khan earlier this year.
The Sheffield fighter leaves the sport with a 40-3 record, defeats coming to high-class trio Gennady Golovkin, Errol Spence JR, and Terence Crawford.
Brook stopped Khan in round six of their long-awaited showdown in February, prompting speculation that he would use that victory as a springboard towards another huge purse, perhaps even against rising star Chris Eubank Jr.
But he has instead called time on his career, telling the Sunday Telegraph that "my heart's no longer in it, I've got nothing left to prove."
"I've had a long chat with my family and my parents, and it's over for me. I'll never box again," revealed Brook in an exclusive interview. "It's a little emotional to be actually saying this out loud. My mam [Julie] is relieved. I think everyone around me is pleased. Truth is, boxing is a very very tough, dangerous sport, one in which you can be legally killed in the ring, and I've finished now with all my faculties intact."
Brook first took up boxing aged nine and credits the sport for providing direction in his life.
"If I hadn't boxed, I would have ended up in real trouble, my life might have gone off the rails, given where I was from," Brook said. "I'll always be grateful to Brendan Ingle and his sons Dominic and John for helping me to find the discipline and the structure in my life."
Management in Brook's future?
Following the announcement, Brook reflected on a fabulous career which ended in style in Manchester as he dominated Khan from the start, ending a feud which had coloured both their careers.
"I've been a world champion, and that night against Shawn Porter in California will live with me forever. As will my last fight with Amir. It's not going to get better than that walk to the ring," he added.
"It was my dream since I started boxing at the age of nine to be a world champion. It was a special night. I've been in the ring with Golovkin, Spence, Crawford, and I finally got my fight with Amir Khan. After that, I don't think I needed to go on anymore.
"I'm one of the lucky boxers who has earned enough not to have to work, but I am going to give something back again, and I'd like to train or manage young fighters. I'd just like to be remembered as a fighter who would go in with anyone, feared no one, and who gave the fans what they wanted."