What Amir Khan is thinking

Amir Khan

AMIR KHAN will do things his own way. The natural fight for him, youโ€™d have thought, would be, at long last, to box his British rival Kell Brook. But instead he will travel to America for a world title fight with Terence Crawford.

His calculation is simple. Khan explained, โ€œDo I stick with the Kell Brook fight, which I know will always be there regardless? Or do I take this next big fight which might not be there for me?โ€

Khan has to know that Brook would a hugely lucrative contest for him. โ€œThatโ€™s a big fight as well,โ€ he said. โ€œWembley [stadium] would be the ideal location for me. Watching [Anthony] Joshua fight there, watching big football matches there, 90,000 people there would be awesome.โ€

โ€œThe gate alone and then youโ€™ve got pay-per-view, the pay per view market will be big because recently the big fights theyโ€™ve been hitting around a million plus buys,โ€ he continued. โ€œItโ€™s a big fight, if youโ€™re going to sell out Wembley stadium. The fightโ€™s been talked about for so many years.

โ€œItโ€™s a business so it has to make sense financially as well.โ€

But boxing Brook would go beyond that too. “Itโ€™s more about the legacy as well, this is a fight that can cement our legacy,โ€ Khan admits. โ€œIโ€™ve got more to lose but at the same time me winning this fight will put everyone straight who the best British fighter in the welterweight is.โ€

โ€œIt is a massive fight for the British fight fans.โ€

But Khan feels ย he might only have two fights left in his whole career. Thatโ€™s why heย wants to make Crawford and a world title shot one of them, while he has the opportunity. โ€œThere are only a couple of fights left in me,โ€ Khan said. โ€œI donโ€™t want to be in the game too long where my reaction time gets slower, I start taking too many shots.

โ€œIโ€™ll fight anyone they put in front of me. It just has to make sense.โ€

amir khan

When it comes to the risk of travelling to America to fight a US star, Khan takes inspiration from Tyson Furyโ€™s performance against Deontay Wilder.

โ€œI think he outboxed him. Iโ€™ve never seen Wilder miss that many and Fury seemed very composed throughout the whole fight. The referee did a great job because when he put him down a second time, I thought he was gone,โ€ Khan said. โ€œAt least it was a draw. What would have been more upsetting and bad for boxing was if Wilder won the fight. They called it a draw, itโ€™ll happen again and weโ€™ll see who the winner is.โ€

โ€œIt gives all boxers confidence,โ€ he adds. โ€œIโ€™ve been put down a few times in my career but Iโ€™ve always got back up. Itโ€™s the hard training Iโ€™ve done. Mentally as well, anyone can be put down, itโ€™s happened to the best of us.”

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