My nose is a little bruised and bent but only I can tell how bad it is,” Amir Khan says as he smiles ruefully when reminded that nine years ago this summer he made his debut as a professional boxer. Khan tweaks his fighter’s nose gently as if he cannot believe how much he has endured since joining the paid ranks of this battered old business as an Olympic silver medallist and teenage sensation in July 2005.
“So much has happened since then,” he says. “I’ve come back from losses and won world titles. I’ve boxed in the UK and America, won fight of the year and moved up three weight classes. I’ve achieved so much and I’m still only 27. But I feel fresh, which is amazing when you think of all the hard fights and hard training. I’ve been boxing since I was eight and that’s a long time to take punches day after day.”
Khan is engaging and eloquent and, like most boxers, he prefers a genuine conversation to a conventional question-and-answer routine. Being hit in the face also instils a rare candour in fighters like Khan. “I’m in a sport where one punch can change your life,” he says intently at his gym in Bolton. “I understand why my mum and my wife can’t bear to watch me fight. There’s a lot of blood, a lot of pain. I’m a fighter but I find it very hard to watch my brother [Haroon – an unbeaten super-flyweight with a professional record of 5-0] because there’s nothing you can do to help him. It must be hell for my mum.”
Khan considers the dark consequences of boxing with a light touch. “I can still read and write,” he quips, but it’s fortunate that – as he displayed so effectively in his last contest – Khan has finally adopted a more clinical style. He took fewer blows than usual when outclassing the limited but experienced Luis Collazo in Las Vegas three months ago. Khan’s features were swollen after 12 rounds but he knocked Collazo down three times and resisted the temptation to engage too heavily during his first bout at welterweight.
Now, just after Ramadan, Khan is in a reflective mood. His skilful display against Collazo won him widespread plaudits but he has lost the chance to fight either Floyd Mayweather or Manny Pacquiao this year. He has also become a less attractive option for fighters who would prefer to face the Khan of old – a vulnerable, big-hitting gambler. “They enjoy that,” he says of opponents as well as US television executives who have always loved Khan’s tendency to produce rollicking entertainment before safety-first dexterity. “I still gave them a great fight against Collazo but the days are gone when I’d go in there, all guns blazing, and make mistakes. I have the skills to box and not get into a war. I’ve been getting punishment I shouldn’t be taking because, sometimes, I’m too brave for my own good. When I’ve got good footwork and movement I should use them.”
Earlier this year, when Khan was convinced he would face Mayweather, the American decided to fight Marcos Maidana – the tough Argentinian whom Khan had defeated in 2010. It was expected to be another routine victory for “Money” Mayweather but Maidana startled everyone.
After he had dispatched Collazo on the same bill at the MGM Grand, Khan says he “stayed in the backroom and watched the fight on TV.
“For the first five rounds [in a fight Maidana initially dominated and hurt the normally evasive Mayweather] I was shocked. I’d expected Mayweather to win easily but styles make fights. Maidana put so much pressure on him that Floyd didn’t have room to throw his punches. You have problems with Maidana if you just stand and fight. Floyd won but it wasn’t easy. If I had fought Floyd it might’ve been a very different story because I’m so much faster. It was a strange night because Mayweather just didn’t look himself. Maybe time is catching up with him or he had personal issues.”
Does Khan believe the notoriously tricky Mayweather when he promises that they will eventually fight? “I kind of do, but I don’t,” Khan sighs. “It’s a tough one. I know he needs me to make the really big pay-per-view numbers and money motivates him. It drives him because he can make much more fighting me than Maidana. I’m big in the UK, Dubai, Asia and places where Floyd’s not as well known.”
Maidana has been given a rematch with Mayweather on 13 September and Khan remains on the outside looking in, striving to sound positive. “Floyd had a tough fight last time and the rematch might be tough too. So it’s working out just right. When we do fight I’ll be so much fresher. I know Floyd [46-0] wants to reach the 50-fight mark and maybe his last one will be against me.”
Khan, meanwhile, had been trying to drum up interest in a fight against Pacquiao in November. It’s an intriguing prospect because they once shared a trainer in Freddie Roach – but Pacquiao has since announced that he will box the unbeaten Chris Algieri instead. “The Manny fight can still happen at some point,” Khan says. “My promoters, Golden Boy, and Bob Arum [Pacquiao’s promoter] are about to start working together again. Me and Manny sparred a lot, and I often went with him to the Philippines, so it would make a great fight. I’ve left it with my team and my adviser Al Haymon [who also works closely with Mayweather] and I told them: ‘I like the Manny fight.’ But we’ve had no response.
“Boxing is all about timing and Manny and Floyd are getting older. Someone has to take their place. Mayweather would be a very technical fight, like a game of chess. But I think Manny would be harder. He’s much more aggressive and it would be more intense. But with my trainer Virgil Hunter I’m a much better and more defensive fighter.”
Khan sounds slightly forlorn when considering his dwindling options this year. “The Mayweather fight has gone for now,” he admits. “The Manny fight too. So I’ll be disappointed because who else is there to fight? It’s very hard to get a top-10 guy but I want to keep busy.”
It looks likely that Khan will fight next in December – with either Robert Guerrero or Devon Alexander his probable opponent. The obvious solution would have been for Khan to meet Kell Brook, his undefeated Sheffield rival, who is now preparing for a defining contest in the US. Khan has often denigrated Brook, but he sounds impressed by his fellow Briton travelling to California to fight the IBF world welterweight champion Shawn Porter on 16 August. “I respect that a lot. Not many fighters would go away from home against Porter and, if Kell wins, it would put him straight in the big time. It would then definitely make sense for me and Kell to fight. We saw what Froch and Groves did at Wembley with 80,000 fans. We can also do that. But it’s a big step up against Porter. Is he ready? He’s been fighting C-class guys and now he’s in with an A-class fighter.”
Khan eventually needs one of Brook, Pacquiao or Mayweather but it’s important he does not become embroiled in less dignified scraps. This interview, scheduled for early July, had to be postponed because, hours before our first meeting, Khan was accused of assault by two teenage boys in Bolton. The outcome was less sensational but Khan looks mortified when asked if he had been seriously concerned.
“Yeah,” he nods. “I know it doesn’t look good. It doesn’t help my career and if I’d been charged it could have affected me going back to America. So I was concerned even if it was a misunderstanding. I had the interview in the police station and the policeman said: ‘Look, this is nothing much. You boys can just sit down and sort it out.’ On the Friday evening [18 hours after the incident] I got a call from the officer saying they were thinking of dropping the charges. I said there must be closed-circuit cameras which would show I did nothing bad. The police said there were but they weren’t switched on. That would have helped me big time.”
What actually happened? “Some kids started throwing things at my car. I got out of the car and one of them pushed me. I pushed him back and he fell on the floor. That was about it. I was on my own and there were 20 of them. It was just a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. So it was a huge relief the case got dropped. The boys have since apologised to me and said it was wrong. In my position people are always going to have a go at me but, even though I’m a fighter, I don’t want to be fighting out of the ring.”
It was Khan’s latest brush with tabloid infamy and he still appears shaken. “It went all over the world. I was getting calls from America, Singapore, Pakistan, Asia, Dubai. I couldn’t believe how big it went. It’s the downside of being famous.”
Khan has had far happier moments since the Colloza fight – not least becoming a father to a little girl. He seems suitably besotted with his daughter and the fact that he has been able to spend the first few months of her life at home in Bolton rather than locked away in a training camp. “It’s also been Ramadan and, while it’s not easy, I enjoy the fasting. I’ve done a lot of research and fasting is good for you. It’s a sacrifice I enjoy, and my friends now understand my sacrifices as a fighter trying to make weight.”
He shudders and relives his hardest ordeal on the scales when, before his last fight in Britain, against Julio Díaz 15 months ago “I was 12 pounds over [the light-welterweight limit] the day before the weigh-in. During my training I’d made sure I was rehydrating and eating small amounts and taking the protein shakes MaxiNutrition make for me. I was strong and fit but then I had to shift the weight.”
Khan explains the painful process in intricate detail as he starved and ran and sweated in a steaming hot bath. “I made it but I was so weak. That showed me I had to move up a division and you saw how strong I was at welterweight.”
He has taken his hard licks and three painful losses in a nine-year career which has seen him win 29 of his 32 fights. There have been disappointments and worries and there are sure to be more letdowns before Khan gets in the ring with Mayweather but he sounds cheerful and undaunted. “I’m still fresh and I love the sport. It’s addictive and I need to be careful I get out before too many fights. If I stay in fantastic condition and I’ve got all this experience and my mind’s still there I can fight until I’m 30. But in another three years I’ll think about calling it a day. I’ve been doing it for a very long time and you can’t keep on forever. I just want to make the most of the time I’ve got left as a fighter.”
