‘I would love to fight Pacquiao’
Khan faces Vargas in latest comeback contest The 31-year-old hopes to secure ‘global’ bout
The conundrum for Amir Khan is as complex as the mix of his sublime skills and strange vulnerability in the ring. Six years have passed since Khan held a world title yet the 31-year-old admitted to The Daily Telegraph yesterday that the prospect of retirement haunts him after a career which has bustled with fame and fortune – estimated at £30 million – yet with a lack of accomplishments to show from the blistering hand speed his professional fighting life once promised.
Indeed, Khan’s path in the ring has meandered for at least four years and a final fling in a sharkinfested welterweight division looks a step too far for the fighter who came to prominence in the 2004 Olympic final in Athens as a 17-year-old.
Should Khan deal comfortably with the Canada-based Colombian Samuel Vargas in Birmingham tonight, there would be two highprofile fights out there for him: Manny Pacquiao and Kell Brook. Forget bouts with the other welterweight kings, Errol Spence, Keith Thurman and Terence Crawford. They are too young, too mean, and too good.
Khan naturally favours the fight with Pacquiao, a figure of global standing, a totemic figure for 100 million Filipinos and a senator in his country. “I would love to fight Pacquiao.” Khan told The Telegraph. “I’d love to take that fight. That fight is not only a big fight in the UK, but globally. There would be more views in that fight than the Kell Brook fight.”
But while Khan insisted that he had “the biggest balls in the welterweight division” as he prepares to face Vargas, the truth is that it is the quality that has landed him in trouble. The knockout by Breidis Prescott in his 19th fight; the world title defeat by Danny Garcia; the step up to middleweight to face Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, with a horrible knockout at the end of it. Even the two years that Khan waited for an on-off chance at Floyd Mayweather seem mistaken now.
These days Khan wants something different. “It’s about leaving my legacy behind, fighting the names that the fans want you to fight. The Pacquiao fight would be massive because he’s a legend. Those are the fights I want to win. I’m 31 and I thought if I retired now, what am I going to do? Not enough was done in my career and that’s the reason I think I still have a little bit left in me.
“People get it wrong where they say I’m too old. Mayweather went until 40, Pacquiao is 38 or 39. I feel great. I’d love to win another world title. I’d love to fight in a stadium. I’d love be back up there.”
Yet no one wants to see Khan crumpled in a heap again as he was against Alvarez. Promoter Eddie Hearn disclosed yesterday that Brook has agreed to fight Khan at 147lb – but also that Brook is also in the frame to fight Pacquiao.
“Looking at the numbers, if Pacquiao-khan is going to happen that fight will most likely take place outside of the UK,” Hearn said. “It’s a very expensive fight in terms of the fighters’ demands. Kell is also in the running for the Pacquiao fight. And he’ll want less money than Amir. They all want to fight in December.”
Vargas, meanwhile, told Khan to not look beyond him. “I just have to land one punch,” he said. “Everyone knows he’s chinny. Everyone always brings up his speed and his accomplishments, that’s all in the past. He’s an old man now, he’s at the end of his career. I’m capable of taking him out.”
Amir Khan vs Samuel Vargas is live on Sky Sports tonight