Former unified super-lightweight ruler Amir Khan has reflected on the six defeats of his career, admitting that there is one that sticks out as the most painful, largely due to the belief that he could have changed the outcome if he approached the contest differently.
Great Britain’s youngest boxer to have claimed an Olympic medal, Khan debuted as a professional at the age of 18 years old and did so with heaps of expectation on his shoulders, but still impressed in his first 19 contests.
Then, as Khan attempted to move to the world level, he suffered a shock first-round defeat to undefeated Colombian Breidis Prescott, who later changed his moniker to ‘The Khanqueror’ as a result.
Yet, ‘King Khan’ would go on to claim a world title just three fights later, defeating both Marcos Maidana and Zab Judah during his reign before suffering consecutive defeats to Lamont Peterson and Danny Garcia.
In an interview with Froch on Fighting, Khan admitted that his defeat to Garcia was the one that hurt him the most, believing he fought too emotionally after a heated build-up.
“It would be the Danny Garcia fight. Yeah, that hurts me, that fight, but it had everything. It had every title on the line. It had the WBC, the WBA (Super), and it had the Ring Magazine title on there as well. I just let that go. I was going in there thinking I’d knock him out.
“[His dad] got right under my nerves [at the press conference] and then my whole game plan went out of the window. I wanted to go in there and just f***ing knock this guy out and make his dad feel it.
“Everything was going fine but it wasn’t the way that I fight. I should have hit and moved. That was the fight that I really wish I could change.”
Khan’s next two defeats would come in tough world title challenges, losing to both Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford via sixth-round knockout.
In the final fight of his career, Khan came up short against fierce rival Kell Brook, halted in the sixth once again but looking a shadow of his former self in the rounds that preceded the stoppage.
