I’m ready to rumble... thanks to the jungle!
Khan says I’m A Celebrity inspired ring return
ADETOX in the jungle has cleared Amir Khan’s mind for a comeback in the more down- toearth surroundings of Liverpool, on April 21.
The former two- time world champion appeared to be heading for premature retirement, at only 31, until he was transported into the TV reality show I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here.
‘Going to the jungle made me think about everything that had been going wrong with my life,’ said Khan as he revealed a threefight campaign to regain his world welterweight title.
‘It reminded me that boxing is what I love and of my passion for becoming a champion again.’
Khan has ended his feud with previous promoter, Eddie Hearn, whom he had accused of being the ‘unlikeable’ barrier to a longawaited domestic blockbuster fight with Kell Brook. Their reunion also sets up a big-money return for Khan to Sky Sports, who will screen the Liverpool return against a top 10 welterweight opponent to be named next week. A summer showdown with perhaps Brook but more likely American bad boy and four-time champion Adrien Broner, 28, will follow, then a winter world title fight against Errol Spence Jnr or Keith Thurman. Khan’s pregnant wife Faryal believes the I’m A Celebrity reality check saved their marriage, saying: ‘Amir came back from the jungle a different man. Changed for the better.’
The man himself says: ‘I needed time on my own. To realise who I want to be. I saw that I have two or three prime years left, that I’m a 31-year-old man now not a kid.’
His marriage was hit by lurid accusations as Khan alleged his wife had had an affair with Anthony Joshua — with whom he will now be a stablemate in Hearn’s Matchroom promotions.
Khan says now: ‘I said some stupid things. I’d been through two hard years with all the drama in my life and the operation for a hand injury. I was all over the place and social media can make you say childish things. The jungle was my detox.’
As for making up with Hearn, he says: ‘At this final stage of my career I need a team who can get me the big fights. I have no more time to lose. Eddie is the best promoter in the UK, where I need to come back to from America to fight in front of my home fans.’
Hearn says: ‘ Behind all the nonsense Amir has always been a nice lad. We’re both excited about this. He is still one of the big names and there are some huge fights for him out there — Broner, Thurman, Spence, Pacquiao.
‘Brook would still be big. This deal doesn’t make it certain that will happen but it takes away some of the stumbling blocks. Kell is a bit shocked that we’re doing this but I think he knows it can be good for him, too.’
Brook is moving up to lightmiddleweight for his next fight, after years of straining to scale down to welter, but Hearn says: ‘Kell would go back to 147lb if it would bring him the Khan fight.’
Khan will head back to San Francisco to prepare for April 21 at Liverpool’s Echo Arena with American trainer Virgil Hunter. TySOn FUry has been warned he will have to be physically and mentally fit before the British Boxing Board of Control reinstates his licence.
Former World Heavyweight title holder Fury plans an April return but has fought depression, and admitted cocaine use.
Board general secretary robert Smith said: ‘There is a long way to go before we re- issue his licence. We will need to see his up-to-date medical records.’