By Scott Gilfoid: Amir Khan (31-4, 19 KOs) says he’s going to be wrapping up his boxing career in two to three more years before he retires from the sport. The 30-year-old Khan says he wants to fight the winner of the Danny Garcia vs. Keith Thurman fight or possibly Kell Brook. He sees those are two big fight possibilities. He’s already told his management that he wants those fights.
Khan can certainly continue his pro career for another two to three years at the pace he’s fighting now. Khan is kind of a part timer right now, so it’s not as if he’s going to get a lot of mileage on him fighting once a year.
Khan fought once in 2016 in getting knocked cold by Saul Canelo Alvarez in the 6th round in May. Khan also fought once in 2015 in beating Chris Algieri. Khan fought twice in 2014 and once in 2013. You hate to say it, but Khan has been a part time fighter since 2014.
That’s not good. Once you become a part time fighter for more than one year, I think it pretty much leads to dramatic deterioration in your boxing skills. It doesn’t matter if you pick the sport back up. I think your skills are impacted and you’re never the same. I can’t think of any athletes in other sports that are able to become part time competitors and still be at the top of their sports.
Khan said this to Fighthub.com about planning on retiring in 2 to 3 years:
“I’ve given him a couple of names,” said Khan about giving Al Haymon names for his next fight. “I want the winner of Garcia-Thurman. Maybe the Brook fight can happen one day. So those are two huge fights there.”
When asked how much longer he plans on fighting, Khan said, “Two more years, two to three years.”
Khan could be Brook’s lifeline if he agrees to fight him now, because he could save Brook from a potential devastating knockout loss to the talented Errol Spence.
Khan should look to cash out against Brook right now while he still can. Brook seems to be in the same boat as Khan. He just got knocked out by Gennady “GGG” Golovkin, and he’s heading towards another knockout if he dares to defend his IBF welterweight title against Errol Spence Jr.
It’ll be Golovkin part 2. Brook and Khan need to fight each other now before they get knocked out in 2017 by their opponents. I see Brook as no better off than Khan. He’s heading for the same end. There’s a bigger target on Brook though, because he’s holding the IBF 147lb title and he’s got Spence on his tail and can’t shake him. Brook’s promoter Eddie Hearn keeps mentioning the 75/25 revenue split for the Spence fight, as if that would cause Spence to lose interest in the fight.
He’s not losing interest though. Spence will gladly take the 25 percent cut of the loot so that he can beat Brook, and take his scalp to add it to his collection. Spence will then use the IBF title as a lure to get the winner of the Danny Garcia vs. Keith Thurman to fight him. Without the IBF title in is possession, Spence would likely never get Garcia or Thurman to fight him in a million years. Brook is literally in the hot seat with him holding down the IBF title. He’d be smart to vacate that belt so that he can avoid the KO loss to Spence.
I doubt that Khan will be a factor in boxing after 2017. I see Khan fighting just once in 2017 with him either getting knocked out by Kell Brook or the winner of the Danny Garcia vs. Keith Thurman fight. Once Khan loses that fight, he’ll likely continue his pattern of taking the remainder of the year off so that he can travel around the world as a tourist or whatever.
I don’t think Khan is going to be interested in getting back into the gym to fight a second time in 2017, I really don’t. That’s Khan’s problem. He just does seem interested in remaining active at this stage in his career and he hasn’t since 2014. Khan’s career is slowing in the same way that we’re seeing with Miguel Cotto and Bernard Hopkins. Oscar De La Hoya did the same thing late in his career. He became a part time fighter, and we saw the results of his part time efforts in losses to Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao.
I think Khan has missed so much time in his career at this point that he’s probably no more than a fringe level fighter in terms of what he has left in the tank. I don’t think Khan ever really was a talented enough fighter to hold a title at 147, but he definitely isn’t now. I see Khan as someone that is probably no better than a bottom 15 type of fighter.
