AMIR KHAN will do things his own way. The natural fight for him, youโd 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, โDo 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. โThatโs a big fight as well,โ he said. โWembley [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
โThe gate alone and then youโve got pay-per-view, the pay per view market will be big because recently the big fights theyโve been hitting around a million plus buys,โ he continued. โItโs a big fight, if youโre going to sell out Wembley stadium. The fightโs been talked about for so many years.
โItโs a business so it has to make sense financially as well.โ
But boxing Brook would go beyond that too. “Itโs more about the legacy as well, this is a fight that can cement our legacy,โ Khan admits. โIโve 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
โIt 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. Thatโs why heย wants to make Crawford and a world title shot one of them, while he has the opportunity. โThere are only a couple of fights left in me,โ Khan said. โI donโt want to be in the game too long where my reaction time gets slower, I start taking too many shots.
โIโll fight anyone they put in front of me. It just has to make sense.โ
When it comes to the risk of travelling to America to fight a US star, Khan takes inspiration from Tyson Furyโs performance against Deontay Wilder.
โI think he outboxed him. Iโve 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. โAt 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, itโll happen again and weโll see who the winner is.โ
โIt gives all boxers confidence,โ he adds. โIโve been put down a few times in my career but Iโve always got back up. Itโs the hard training Iโve done. Mentally as well, anyone can be put down, itโs happened to the best of us.”