IT’S PANTS!
Khan strips off to make weight
The dazzling lights of both Broadway and that fabled Strip are beckoning Amir Khan once more. The siren cries of a football stadium are calling.
First, however, he knows this: ‘I have to find out that I have enough left in me for more huge fights.’ The answer comes now, in the more parochial surroundings of Birmingham Arena.
Khan fully expects it to be a resounding Yes this Saturday night as he hurdles the not so lofty Samuel Vargas in the second bout of his comeback from that fully concussing knockout by Mexican idol Canelo Alvarez more than two years ago.
That came in vivid contrast to those boogie nights in New York where he pummelled world champion Americans Paulie Malignaggi and Chris Algieri. Is he heading back to those halls of fame to fight the likes of Manny Pacquiao? Will he travel via a football ground for the great British grudge match with Kell Brook?
Only Vargas, a trial horse from Colombia via Canada who talks a better fight than his record suggests, stands in his way. Khan returns to welterweight, the division in which he has never lost. he had to strip naked at the weigh-in to make the 10st 7lb limit. Not so easy as he expected to trim the last ounces, or bang on the weight? That is a question his new trainer, veteran American Joe Goossen, will have to answer if it does all go pear-shaped.
Vargas was a comfortable one pound lighter.
Khan, having flattened another Canadian, Phil Lo Greco, in 39 seconds, wants this one to hang around a little longer so the world can see him go through his paces.
‘At 31, I feel I’m not only as good as ever but in my prime,’ he says. ‘But I need to prove it to myself in the ring. Then I can move on to a stadium fight with Brook and back to America for world title fights against Pacquiao, Terence Crawford and errol Spence Jr. I loved it when I saw my name up in lights on the Vegas Strip and Times Square. Who wouldn’t?
‘This comeback has rekindled my love of boxing. I wouldn’t be doing this just to take a beating for a last payday the first time I get in the ring with another champion.
‘ I’m not thinking about retirement. Thirty-one is not old in boxing now. I don’t know how many years I will go on. One, two, five, six....whatever, it will be long enough to go for a third world title and at least one huge legacy fight.
‘Whenever I retire I want to be remembered not for that KO by Canelo but for the titles and all the exciting fights I’ve given the fans.’
Vargas says: ‘ As soon as I touch him on the chin he’s asleep.’ To which Khan replies: ‘he’s not good enough to be in the same ring, let alone land a big punch on me.’
If by some remote chance Khan is wrong, it would be curtains. If not it will be lights, camera, action on the biggest stages in the hardest game.
Khan v Vargas LIVE on Sky Sports Action from 7pm.