Amir Khan this weekend will step back into reality when he returns to his day job and fights Phil Lo Greco in Liverpool. We haven’t seen Khan in a boxing ring, since Canelo Alvarez knocked him out in 2016, despite being out of the ring for so long, Khan sounds confident in an interview with Sky Sports:
“Two years is a long time to be out of the ring. In those two years, I was always watching videos of my old fights, improving as a fighter. Maybe not punching, but doing a lot of shadow-boxing. It’s been a long time out of the ring but I’m ready.”
“I think I’m at the peak of my career now. I feel better now than I did when I was 28. I train smarter now. When I was younger I made mistakes. Now I’m smarter, I don’t want to be caught with those big shots like the Canelo shot. Canelo, that night, would have knocked out a lot of welterweight fighters. He’s a very big puncher.”
Khan returns not only from the extended break from boxing but with his broken hand now fixed after an operation which he says will allow him to punch with full power again. Khan says he suffered the injury for 13 years, and so this Saturday we will get to see what Khan has left.
We tend to forget what an elite fighter Khan was, his critics forget the excellent wins over the likes of Marcos Maidana and Zab Judah, but those wins were in 2010 and 2011, and the signs have been there for some time that Khan isn’t what he once was.
Khan says he took the ill-advised fight with Canelo out of desperation because fights with Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao failed to come to fruition. But Khan was chasing the big fights that were unlikely to happen rather than focus on a fight on his doorstep with Kell Brook, which was there for the taking. Both fighters will look back in years to come and regret that the fight didn’t happen, although there is still time to make that fight, although I have my doubts it ever will.
Phil Lo Greco looks an ideal opponent for Khan after so long way. Lo Greco has a seemingly impressive record of 29-3, but those 3 defeats have come in his last 6 fights, and at 33 Lo Greco shouldn’t pose too many problems for Khan.
But if Khan does lose, he will probably be left searching for another reality show rather than his next opponent.
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