By Jim Dower: Amir “King” Khan says he’ll be back inside the ring in February, and he plans on fighting 3 times in 2018 in total. The inactive 30-year-old Khan will be participating in I’m A Celebrity, and he’s back with his wife, who is pregnant.
Khan’s boxing career has stalled since he suffered a 6th round knockout defeat a year and half ago to Saul Canelo Alvarez on May 7. Khan has talked frequently wanting to return to the ring since that loss, but nothing has come of it. Khan recently said he would be fighting this December, but that’s now been pushed back to February 2018. Before that, Khan had talked of wanting to fight in April of this year.
What Khan says and what he does are 2 different things. At this point, it’s anyone’s guess when Khan will be fighting again. February sounds good, but for Khan’s return, but he’s already given two previous fight estimates for his return to the ring and neither of them has come true.
“I’ll be training while I’m here. I’ll probably go for nice jogs and try to keep out of trouble,” said Khan to thesun.co.uk. ”I want to fight three times in 2018, starting in February, then again just before Ramadan.”
The last time Khan fought 3 times in a year was in 2011, when he fought Paul McCloskey, Zab Judah and Lamont Peterson. Since then, Khan has kept this schedule for his boxing career:
• 2012 – 2 fights: Danny Garcia and Carlos Molina
• 2013 – 1 fight: Julio Diaz
• 2014 – 2 fights: Devon Alexander and Luis Collazo
• 2015 – 1 fight: Chris Algieri
• 2016 – 1 fight: Saul Canelo Alvarez
• 2017 – 0 fights – 2 failed ring return estimates for April and December
If Khan does fighting 3 times in 2018, he’ll shock a lot of boxing fans, as he’s become little more than a part-time fighter since 2012. Much of the news about Khan since 2012 has centered on his love for travel rather than him staying active and fighting relevant contenders and champions. The only real fight that Khan has had in the last 4 years was his match against Canelo last year, and he was badly knocked out in that fight.
Khan has fought just 7 times in 5 years. You can see that Khan is no longer putting much effort into his boxing career, and it seems highly unlikely that he’s going to be able to fight at an important level like he did before. The kind of inactivity that Khan has suggests that it’s not realistic to assume that he’s ever going to be able to return to the form that he had in 2011 and before then.
Khan is no longer viewed as one of the top welterweights in the division due to his inactivity, and his lack of quality wins over relevant fighters in the last few years.
Khan’s victories in the last 3 years have come against guys from yesterday and not the top dogs in the 147-lb. division of today.
If Khan does fight 3 times in 2018, it would be great to see him challenge WBA/WBC champion Keith Thurman or IBF belt champion Errol Spence Jr. Those 2 are considered the best fighters in the 147-lb. division right now. Terence Crawford has moved up to welterweight, but he still hasn’t fought for a title yet.