Because the knot homology theories are TQFTs!
This definition is taken from [[1]]: [![enter image description here][2]][2]1]:
Knot homology theories are (1+1)-dimensional TQFTs: links are 1-manifolds, and cobordisms between them are 2-manifolds. [1]: http://www.math.ru.nl/~mueger/TQFT/At.pdf [2]: https://i.sstatic.net/eykvR.png