YOU WON’T KEEP ME DOWN

Khan vows to put marriage woes behind him... and return stronger than ever

TROUBLED Amir Khan says he will use his personal turmoil as motivation for a successful return to the boxing ring.

Khan is finding himself in the news on a daily basis after his acrimonious split with wife Faryal Makhdoom.

Latest reports suggest his estranged partner, pregnant with Khan’s second child, will be demanding a £12million divorce settlement.

And he is still coping with the fallout from his claims his wife cheated with

Anthony Joshua – an accusation subsequently withdrawn.

Now, the former light-welterweight world champion is set to return to a training camp in San Francisco and has given himself a target of ‘four or five big fights’ in the next two years.

Khan said: “There’s always ups and downs in life and it’s how you come through it. This has only given me the chance now to focus more on boxing.

“This is where people are going to start saying ‘Amir’s going to fail now, we want to see him fail, he’s not going to be the same again with all these distractions’.

“I’m going to have to prove people wrong by going in there and staying on top.”

Khan (below, with Faryal before the split) also confirmed he has cleared the air with Joshua, explaining: “He rang me. Everything is cool. I said, ‘Look, everything was a misunderstanding and we just put a bag over it.’

“He goes, ‘I wanna be able to come over and shake your hand, champ. We want to keep that respect and love’.” Khan, 30, has not fought since being knocked out by Canelo Alvarez in May 2016, and after a third hand operation, there were doubts about his long-term future.

But he insisted: “I’m at the peak of my career. It is just finetuning myself, going back to camp, getting away from all the distractions and doing what I do best.

“I want to fight end of November or early December.

“After my first fight back I’d love to go into a fight with Lamont Peterson because he’s got the WBA title. That would be a world-title fight.”

One fight that will have to wait, although it could still take place, is a grudge match-up with Kell Brook.

Khan said: “It’s a fight the public want but it’s always going to be there even if it’s the last fight of my career.

“Brook is always mouthing off. I’ve been keeping my training up whereas Brook is on a plane getting p***ed somewhere.

“That’s the difference between a professional sportsman and someone who is just **** ing about and wants that big payday fight.

“The only way I would take that fight is if he left Eddie Hearn. I just don’t like him.”