Courageous Khan finally calls it a day
AMIR KHAN has brought an end to one of the finest careers in the modern history of British boxing by announcing his retirement at the age of 35.
His decision came almost three months after he was stopped by his great rival Kell Brook and it will be met with relief that he is no longer prepared to take such risks in the ring.
With Khan’s habit of selecting the most dangerous possible opponent — and then the frontfoot manner in which he faced them — it had become a matter of serious concern that as a clearly faded fighter he was said to be contemplating a rematch with Brook.
Days after Brook himself retired, Khan has now done likewise, which ought to give rise to a wider appreciation of a body of work that saw him win Olympic silver in Athens aged just 17 — contributing to a funding boom that has since fuelled repeated boxing success for Team GB — and then unify the world light-welterweight titles as a professional.
It was a measure of his supreme talent that Khan also contested for world belts at welterweight and middleweight, most recently in 2019.
His final record saw Khan balance 34 wins against six defeats, with 15 opponents either former or current world champions — though it was the Bolton fighter’s great courage that will likely define how boxing fans remember his exploits in the ring.
If the knockout defeat at middleweight against Canelo Alvarez in 2016 could be classified as a gutsy misadventure, then arguably his peak moment came in weathering a relentless tenthround storm to defeat the Argentinian Marcos Maidana in Las Vegas in 2010.
It was certainly key in Khan achieving levels of popularity in the US that are rare for a British fighter.
In announcing his retirement, Khan wrote on Twitter: ‘It’s time to hang up my gloves. I feel blessed to have had such an amazing career that has spanned over 27 years. I want to say a heartfelt thanks to the incredible teams I have worked with and to my family, friends and fans for the love and support they have shown me.’ As for his legacy, he will rank as one of the modern greats of British fighting, a pro of infinite courage who lived up to the hype that came with winning a medal as Team GB’s only boxer at Athens 2004.
Like Audley Harrison before him, he helped pave the way to the advanced funding that makes the British Olympic programme the envy of most nations. Like Harrison, he has also been unfairly criticised by too many, which in Khan’s case almost always came from elements of the crowd rather than pundits. Bluntly, it often amounted to racism.
On occasion his wider life has resembled a soap opera, and of course he has said some odd things, and none more misguided than his support of Daniel Kinahan. But as fighter of quality and heart? He had far fewer equals.