By William Mackay: Boxing is one of the roughest professions in sports. Some fighters are durable and have long careers, while others are quickly exposed and end up hang up their gloves at an early age. Then there the precious few that excel at the sport but make the mistake of sticking around a little too long and lose their skills.

WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan 24-1, 17 KO’s) doesn’t plan on sticking around long enough for his skills to erode. He plans on getting out of the sport at a still young age of only 28, which should be his prime.

It’s strange that Khan would want to get out of the sport in only four years, since realistically he should be at his best at that point in his career if all goes well. Khan had this to say in an article at thesun.co.uk: “Boxing is a short career. I’m looking at probably 28, retiring around that time.”

At first glance, it would seem that Khan has lost his mind completely, because what fighter wants to retire just when they’re hitting their prime? However, it actually makes a lot of sense. Khan is a fighter that depends on hand speed, and once that goes, it’s just him and his chin. He’s not a big puncher, so he doesn’t have that to fall back on once he starts losing his hand speed by degrees.

It will then come down to whether Khan’s chin is good enough for him to stand in and beat younger fighters. I seriously doubt that Khan’s chin is good enough for him to beat many fighters once he starts losing his speed.

I think Khan will likely retire before he reaches 28 after he starts getting beaten on a regular basis. I see him losing to the winner of the Timothy Bradley vs. Devon Alexander. I think he may even lose to Lamont Peterson, if that’s who he ends up facing in April. Khan’s win over Marcos Maidana was a fight that may have took something out of him and made him more susceptible to getting hurt in the future.

Khan really didn’t prove that he was the better fighter than Maidana. Since we don’t know how good Maidana is, we could see Khan getting beaten by Peterson, and definitely by Alexander and Bradley. Once Khan gets beaten by those guys, I see him having to make a huge decision whether it’s worth it for him to continue is career. It may be better for him to retire at that point rather than continue on and suffer more losses.