Alan Shearer gives honest take on idea of fighting Roy Keane in boxing match

Alan Shearer has given his honest thoughts on a potential celebrity boxing fight between him and former Manchester United captain Roy Keane.

Keane and Shearer came to blows on several occasions throughout the late 90's and early 00's.

In fact, the Premier League's all-time top goalscorer said he "didn't like" the United midfielder when they both played, and once referred back to a clash in September 2001 when the Irishman was sent off for throwing a punch at Shearer.

"I had loads of rucks with him and I wasn't the only one. It was a throw-in in the far corner where I stopped him taking an early throw," he said on the Match of the Day podcast.

"We were beating them at St. James' Park and he wanted to take a quick throw-in and he'd been at me all game as he normally was.

"It was about three of four minutes before the end of the game. I can't remember exactly what I said, I called him some sort of name."

Shearer added: "He got the red card and I remember having a little smile and thought: 'I've done you [like] a kipper here'. I can't believe you've fallen into that little trap."

Late last year, Shearer brought up the incident again on the The Rest Is Football with Gary Lineker and Micah Richards.

After being asked what the funniest thing someone had said to him on the pitch, Shearer replied: “Roy Keane once said that he was going to knock me out.”

After hearing about Keane's no-nonsense threat, Lineker replied: “You do surprise me, and did he?" before Shearer laughed, saying: “Come on!”

Lineker added: “I think I’d back you against him, Al. Even now. I think that people would pay to see that. You get all of these celebrity fights now – get the two of you in UFC gloves or boxing gloves."

Shearer, however, played down a potential match-up with Keane in the ring. “I wouldn’t. I’m too old for that s***, Gaz," he laughed.

Micah Richards, who re-enacted his 2007 scuffle with Clint Dempsey on CBS Sports, was then asked if someone clashed with him on the pitch.

He predictably brought up that fight with former Fulham forward Dempsey.

“No one was messing with big Mics on the pitch! They were terrified of me. The only encounters I had were with Ashley Williams and Clint Dempsey," he said.

“Back in the day, he was at Fulham and I was at Man City. He was playing sort of left wing and I was at right back and I was quite small then, but I had a great leap and I kept winning the ball over him.

“He was just getting frustrated and one of the times I won the ball and he shrugged me like ‘what are you doing’.

“So me being from Chapeltown, I wasn’t having that – there was no chance I was having that!

“I said f*** off and it went back and forth and then he turned to me and said: “You don’t know where I’m from, dawg!"

Richards added: “I just thought, ‘what are you even on about’. It keeps bubbling on because you think ‘next time I see him he’s getting it’ but around that time people did a bit of research and found that he’s a pretend rapper.

“So the next time I see him, I said ‘f*** me, you can’t even rap’ and I just laid into him, saying: ‘who do you think you are, Eminem?’

“I was singing Slim Shady throughout the whole game!”