Amir Khan has fought Canelo Alvarez, the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world by most estimates. He’s also fought Terence Crawford, No. 2 on most lists, No. 1 on a few. And if that weren’t enough, he’s also faced the likes of Danny Garcia, Marcos Maidana, Marco Antonio Barrera, Devon Alexander, Chris Algieri, Zab Judah, Paulie Malignaggi and Lamont Peterson.
Clearly, this is a guy who would fight anyone at any time. The one hole on an otherwise fabulous résumé is Kell Brook.
Brook has fought Crawford. And he’s fought Errol Spence Jr., and Gennadiy Golovkin and Shawn Porter. He, too, is a guy eager to take on all comers.
But, until now, the hole on his résumé is Amir Khan.
It’s a bout that fans, particularly those in the U.K., have been wanting for years. On Saturday (1 p.m. ET, ESPN+), they’ll finally meet in Manchester, England.
Khan, 35, has been a professional boxer for more than half his life. He won a silver medal at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece, and in the pro ranks, was a world champion at super lightweight and has been among the best fighters in the world for more than a decade.
The Brook fight didn’t happen sooner, though there was often talk of it, for a simple reason. He opted to base his fight career in the U.S., and Brook was based in the U.K.
“One thing about America is when you fight over there, you become that global star, you know?” Khan told Yahoo Sports. “And it’s just a bigger place and boxing is huge over there. So that’s why I did that and that’s why we just kept missing each other.”
Khan said he took it upon himself to have his team reach out to Brook’s to get the fight done. And while neither man is at his peak, it’s a case of better late than never.
One reason there was so much interest in the bout was not just that both were British welterweights, but also that their styles mesh well.
Khan is a boxer who relies on speed, agility, timing and accuracy, but who occasionally likes to bite down on the mouthpiece and go toe-to-toe. Brook is a hard puncher who takes a punch well, but he’s got the ability to box and move when he needs to do so.
This fight can go in a number of different directions, but Khan believes it’s a can’t-miss.
And while part of that is the styles, there’s the personal aspect, as well. Khan was always the bigger name because of his Olympic pedigree, and that annoyed Brook. When they were in the midst of their respective primes, plenty of, well, unpleasant words were exchanged.
So there’s a rivalry that has gotten a bit personal, too.
“Boxing fans will [love this], but even non-boxing fans will, too, because it’s going to be a terrific fight,” Khan said. “The thing in this fight is you’ve got a boxer who can fight and a fighter who can box. We both kind of mix it, we both are like boxing fighters. We box a bit, but we can fight as well if we had to.
“Obviously, I’ve got the speed, Kell’s got the power. So that’s what makes this fight really, really exciting. Obviously, Kell’s fought guys who are quick. He says he can deal with that. I’ve fought guys with power and I can deal with that. So this is what makes this fight really good. And both being from Britain and you can see deep down we don’t like each other. I mean, it is a little bit more personal than it is [normally].”
Khan: McIntyre turned back the clock on my career Khan has had a series of elite trainers over the years, including Freddie Roach, Joe Goossen and Virgil Hunter. But for the Khan fight, he’s being trained by Brian “Bomac” McIntyre, the lead trainer of Crawford.
Khan was in Dubai on vacation when he said his wife, Faryal, suggested he get to Omaha. Khan was dumbfounded.
“My wife goes, ‘Listen, pack your bag. You need to go to train in Omaha. I’m like, Omaha? Where the hell is Omaha?’” Khan said. “And then she was like, ‘You’d better go and train with ‘Bomac’ because the talk started with me fighting against Kell Brook. Now who knows Kell Brook better than anyone is ‘Bomac’ because ‘Bomac’ fought him last with Crawford. And also ‘Bomac’ knows me quite well because I’ve also fought Crawford, as well.
“So then I said, ‘Cool,’ and the next thing I know is I’m in Omaha training with ‘Bomac’ and the team. I loved it. I love the training. They pushed me really, really hard. At the time I was thinking, ‘How am I going to get through this?’ Because it is very hard. I mean, this is why Crawford is the best in the world because the way they get pushed, the way they’re conditioned, and their strength they have is amazing.”
Khan had doubts, but says McIntyre’s insistence on pushing him paid off. We’ll see for sure on Saturday, but he said McIntyre has been just what he’s needed.
“I have to say, honestly, I take my hat off to Bomac because these guys pushed me so hard,” Khan said. “When you know that you’re 35 you think, ‘Have I still got it left in me?’ Every fighter at that age is going to think that, you know? I was thinking, ‘Will I still have it in me?’
“But guess what? I was sparring young fighters, I was running with the young fighters and outdoing them, out-beating them, out-punching them, at 35. So I think what they’ve done is they’ve worked me that hard that I’ve kind of reversed the clock back to when I was back in my 20s.”
