Amir Khan

This article is about a British boxer, for the Indian actor of the same name see Aamir Khan .

Amir Khan
Data
Birth Name	Amir Iqbal Khan
Weight class	Light welterweight
nationality	British
birthday	December 8, 1986
place of birth	Bolton
style	Left delivery
size	1.74 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	39
Victories	34
Knockout victories	21st
Defeats	5

Amir Iqbal Khan (born December 8, 1986 in Bolton , England ) is a British boxer of Pakistani descent and former super world champion of the WBA and former world champion of the IBF light welterweight.

At the age of 22 years and 7 months, he became the third youngest British professional world champion to date, behind Naseem Hamed (21 years 7 months) and Herbie Hide (22 years 6 months). In relation to Naseem Hamed, with whom he is often compared, he is much more reserved in public appearance.

Amateur career

Amir Khan won the 2003 European Cadet Championships in Lithuania and the European Schoolchildren Championships in Italy . He won each of his seven fights, including against Victor Cotiujanschi and Balázs Bácskai . In 2004 he also secured the gold medal at the Junior World Championships in South Korea , where he defeated Yordenis Ugás and Alexis Vastine , among others . In addition, he won the European Olympic qualification in Bulgaria .

He then started at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens at the age of 17 and became the youngest British medalist when he lost to Mario Kindelán in the final and thus received the silver medal. He had previously beaten Marios Kaperonis, Dimitar Shtiljanow , Baik Jong-Sub and Serik Jeleuow . However, he defeated Mario Kindelán in 2005 in an international match in England.

Contrary to his earlier statements that he would remain an amateur until the Olympic Games in 2008, Khan turned professional in 2005 at the age of 18.

Professional career

He signed with British promoter Frank Warren and was trained by Oliver Harrison. He won his debut on July 16, 2005. His enormous speed and boxing technique were considered an advantage, and his ability to take, which earned him the reputation of a glass chin , was considered a disadvantage . He won each of his 18 fights until 2008, 14 of them prematurely, and was Commonwealth Champion and Intercontinental Champion of the WBO in the lightweight. However, he was counted against Rachid Drilzane in December 2006 and he was also down against Willie Limond in July 2007.

In September 2008, Khan lost by knockout in the first round against the Colombian Breidis Prescott . The fight had lasted only 54 seconds and brought Khan Freddie Roach as the new coach. In his next fight, he defeated Oisin Fagan by technical knockout in the second round, but he had been fighting with a broken ankle since the first round.

In March 2009 he won against Marco Barrera by evaluating the score sheet . On the advice of the ring doctor, the referee stopped the fight in the fifth round after Barrera suffered a cut injury from a collision with the heads.

On July 18, 2009, he boxed in Manchester for the WBA world light welterweight title and defeated the Ukrainian Andreas Kotelnik unanimously on points. At this time, Kotelnik was ranked 5th in the world rankings of the Ring Magazine and was already defending his title against Khan for the third time.

In his first title defense he was able to defeat the unbeaten Ukrainian Dmitry Salita (record: 30-0) after three knockdowns in the first round and also won his second title defense in his US debut by dropping out of referee in the eleventh round against Paul Malignaggi , where he won the Had clearly dominated the fight.

On December 11, 2010, he fought in Las Vegas against Marcos Maidana and won by unanimous decision. Khan also dominated the initial action here, with Maidana on the ground in the first round. From the tenth round, however, Maidana won the upper hand and brought Khan to the brink of a knockout, but this was able to save himself with his points advantage over the rounds. The duel was voted fight of the year by the BWAA .

He won his fourth title defense in April 2011 against the undefeated British Paul McCloskey (22-0). As in the fight against Barrera, McCloskey's cut injury caused by a head collision between both athletes led to the fight being stopped prematurely and the score sheet being evaluated after the sixth round.

On July 23, 2011, Khan also won the IBF world title in Las Vegas by knocking out Zab Judah in the fifth round , who then unsuccessfully declared the decisive blow to the belt area as a low blow.

On December 10, 2011, a scandalous fight broke out between Amir Khan and Lamont Peterson in Washington, DC . Khan has been signed to Óscar de la Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions since 2010 and was ranked # 1 in the Ring Magazine world rankings. Peterson was considered a 10-1 underdog and was ranked 6th by Ring Magazine. In the first lap, Peterson was twice on the ground, only one of the rainfall being counted. Khan received points deductions in rounds 7 and 12 for pushing away the opponent, a rather unusual decision. In addition, point manipulations should have taken place. A person with an IBF ID had inspected the score sheet during the fight and had talked to one of the judges, which is a clear violation of the rules. Peterson was ultimately named the winner by split point decision. Due to objections from Golden Boy Promotions, the WBA set a rematch in January 2012. The objection to the IBF was withdrawn for lack of prospects of success. However, the fight did not materialize after Peterson tested positive for a prohibited substance on a doping test in May 2012. Khan was then again named world champion by the WBA. The IBF title stayed with Peterson.

On July 14, 2012 Khan lost by technical knockout in the fourth round against WBC world champion Danny García . Khan had dominated the fight by the second round and inflicted a cut injury to García in the right eye before he went badly to the ground in the third round. He saved himself badly damaged in the fourth round, but went down twice there and was taken out of the fight by referee Kenny Bayless.

Under his new coach Virgil Hunter , he defeated Carlos Molina (17-0) in December 2012 and Julio Díaz in April 2013 , although he was down again. In May 2014, Khan won over Luis Collazo and had his opponent down three times. He then achieved two more unanimous wins against Devon Alexander and Chris Algieri .

On May 7, 2016 Khan received another world championship chance in Las Vegas, but lost in the fight for the WBC middleweight title by knockout in the sixth round against Saúl Álvarez . He did not play his next fight until April 2018 against the Canadian Phil Lo Greco (28-3) and won early in the first round. In September 2018, he also defeated Samuel Vargas (29-3) unanimously on points.

On April 20, 2019, he boxed against Terence Crawford for the WBO welterweight championship, but lost to TKO in the sixth round. In July 2019 he defeated the Australian Billy Dib .

Web links

Commons : Amir Khan  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Amir Khan in the BoxRec database
• Official website ( Engl. )

predecessor	Office	successor
Andreas Kotelnik	Light welterweight boxing champion ( WBA ) July 18, 2009 - July 23, 2011	Marcos René Maidana
Ricky Hatton	Super light welterweight boxing champion ( WBA ) July 23, 2011 - December 10, 2011	Lamont Peterson
Zab Judah	Light welterweight boxing champion ( IBF ) July 23, 2011 - December 10, 2011	Lamont Peterson
Lamont Peterson	Super light welterweight boxing champion ( WBA ) July 11, 2012 - July 14, 2012	Danny García