AMIR KHAN, who this week talks exclusively to Boxing News about his comeback that has seen him sign a three-fight deal with Matchroom and Sky Sports, admits he has been getting back to “a normal life” following his appearance in I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here.
The two-time world champion – at last being positioned for a showdown with long time nemesis, Kell Brook – finished a popular fourth place in the ITV show and enjoyed his time Down Under.
“The experience was amazing,” he told Boxing News. “It was like a training camp, but at the same time it was scary as well. I loved it. I wouldn’t like to do it again, but with what I experienced it was awesome. It was great to do it.”
During one successful challenge, Khan and a fellow campmate were rewarded with a serving of strawberries and cream, which Khan and radio host Iain Lee devoured on the quiet.
“The highlight of the whole thing was… probably eating the strawberries,” he laughed. “Also, doing the trials and making my teammates laugh.”
Khan says the show has taken his profile to another level and that everywhere he goes people are talking to him about ‘strawberry-gate’.
“I go to the shops, I go out and everyone is talking about strawberries,” he explained. “I can’t believe what big news it is.”
He dropped around a stone in weight and said he was “sick of the rice and beans” by the end of the show.
And while many ‘celebs’ use reality shows to reignite their careers, Khan opted to do it after the biggest fight of his career – a knockout loss to Saul Alvarez.
“I just needed to get away and refocus on what I want to do in life,” he said. “That’s the reason I did it. A lot of people would go on there to build their career, I went on there to let people know who the real me is.
“I had time on my hands [he could not fight because of hand surgeries]. I thought, ‘Let’s go out there and show them who the real Amir Khan is. And while I’m in there I thought I could do some training.’ So I thought it might be a good idea for me to show people who the real me is. And it definitely happened. People have been saying great things and nice things and I think it worked.
“It has definitely excelled my profile. Everywhere I go people just love knowing what I was getting up to, asking for pictures and autographs. It’s amazing.”
Khan, whose private life was fired across social media several times in 2017, has patched things up with wife Faryal and the couple are expecting a second child.
“It was all just me being a little bit silly, maybe saying things that weren’t true and just making big issues of nothing really,” he said of the public spat last year.
“I think it definitely played a part of it when I wasn’t fighting for a long period of time. It shows how important boxing is in my life. I need to box and keep myself busy because otherwise you can go the wrong path.
“But I’ve sorted out the issues with my family, I’ve sorted the issues out with my wife and I’ve sorted the issues out with my dad and it’s all about standing on my own feet and enjoying the last few moments in my boxing career.”
