By Liam Brindle: On 17th December 2008 I wrote an article on this site entitled ‘Amir Khan…appreciate him’ (http://tiny.cc/xph1j).

This was written just after Amir Khan had devastated the previously undefeated Dmitriy Salita in a little over one minute in Newcastle.

In that article I was discussing how Amir Khan had dragged himself off the canvas after suffering a brutal knockout at the hands of Breidis Prescott and began to transform almost every single aspect of him game, and was developing at a very nice pace, in just four fights.

There was a mixed response to the article, some saying they agreed with me but several questioning the choice of opponents that Khan had faced and if he was indeed becoming a very good fighter or if he was simply dealing with hand-picked opponents.

After that particular article Khan signed with Golden Boy, who quickly got Khan a fight in America offering him USA exposure. The choice of opponents was the skilled Pauie Maliggnagi who is slick, fast, skilled and very tricky to deal with.

The trash talk went back and forth with the two on Twitter, many USA ‘boxing fans’ (Mr Gilford) thought Khan would be out boxed and would either suffer a UD or a late stoppage. Instead it was quite the opposite with Khan punishing Paulie in every department of the fight. He was faster, stronger, more accurate and more impressively his footwork was so good and he often caught Malignaggi on the ropes and peppered his face with rapid straight shots… forcing the referee to call a holt to proceedings in the eleventh round.

Immediately after the fight Amir called out the dangerous and much avoided Marcos Maidana.

Lots of people (Mr Gilford) said that Khan was saying this as a smoke screen and would not take the Maidana fight. What happened? The two met at Mandalay Bay Casino and fought out the FOTY!

The fight was dubbed ‘Thunder V Lightening’ Khan acting out the latter.

But it was Khan who would turn out to have both, dropping Maidana in the first round, where Marcos was very much saved by the bell (another 10 seconds and the referee would have stepped in).

Khan took some heavy heavy shots bang on the chin and still stood and fought, showing his heart and chin cannot be questioned.

Amir then went on to fight the previously undefeated and very tricky south-paw Paul McCloskey, again people questioned how Amir would handle the Irish man.

The ending of the fight was considered controversial, but in actual fact, McCloskey was indeed taking a beating and lost every round up to the point where the doctor stepped in.

At this point the Khan haters are saying Khan will not fight Bradley, what happens? Khan offers a 50/50 split and calls out Bradley on countless occasions and it was in fact Mr Bradley who declined the challenge. At this point Zab Judah stepped in.

Again people on this site are talking of how Zab is reformed and how he will be to strong, too experienced, too evasive and hit too hard for Khan and where predicting a KO for Judah against Khan.

Once again Khan stepped up and brutalized Zab for five rounds and knocking him out with a perfectly placed shot to the body.

Now once again Khan is calling out Bradley…will he accept? Not a chance! He is scared to death of Khan because he knows he will be exposed by the fast relentless fists of Amir.

I think it is about time that people begin to give Khan the credit that he has surely earned by defeating everybody thrown in his path, also it is refreshing how active he is… I mean it is not too common nowadays to see a boxer competing at world level 3-4 times a year.

If you look at the progression of his career since that defeat in 2008 you cannot help but be impressed… so why not celebrate that instead of always trying to knock him down.