Kell Brook is on course for a showdown against Amir Khan at the back end of this year after a spectacular second-round knockout of Sergey Rabchenko at the Sheffield Arena.

Brook has long coveted a bout against his British rival but those prospects seemed to diminish when he followed up a fruitless jump to middleweight to challenge Gennady Golovkin in September 2016 by losing his IBF welterweight title to Errol Spence Jr last May.

However, the 31-year-old drew a line under those twin defeats in emphatic style in his first foray into the light-middleweight division as he needed less than five minutes to dispose of Belarusian fighter Rabchenko to the delight of a partisan home crowd in South Yorkshire.

In doing so, Brook not only rejuvenated his career but laid down the gauntlet to Khan, who will end a near two-year layoff when he takes on Canada’s Phil Lo Greco at a catchweight of 150lbs in Liverpool next month.

Eddie Hearn, who promotes the pair, said: “That fight potentially happens in November or December.

“My job for both guys is to provide the biggest fights out there and I feel that fight is the biggest fight out there for both of them.

“I just feel one day, if we don’t make that fight, we’ll look back and think ‘ohh’, everyone will.

“But the fight’s not as big if they’re not firing on all cylinders. Kell showed he’s 100 per cent firing on all cylinders and Amir’s got to show that on April 21, and then we’ll move on.”

The Khan fight is not the only option available to Brook, who feels he delivered a warning to the top-tier fighters in the 154lb division with his demolition of Rabchenko.

Hearn believes Brook, who is scheduled to return to the ring in the summer, possibly as early as June, has found a new lease of life at light-middleweight and would back him to avenge his defeat to Spence Jr if the pair were to meet in that category.

Hearn added: “Rabchenko is world level but he’s not elite level, but what Kell did to him just shows you he is 100 per ent elite level.

“He didn’t get the best out of what he could have at welterweight. The only reason he couldn’t beat Errol Spence is because of what he had to do to make 147lbs. He would beat Errol Spence at 154lbs, no question.

“Errol Spence is a very good fighter but at welterweight (Brook) can’t do it. He feels as though he can make welterweight but I truly believe this is the weight.”