By Jim Dower: Former light welterweight champion Amir Khan plans on making up for lost time in 2018 by fighting 3 times during the year. Khan’s planned dates are March, July and December. Khan (31-4, 19 KOs) last fought in May 2016 in his knockout loss to Saul Canelo Alvarez.
Khan hasn’t been able to comeback from that loss because of personal problems, as well as recovery from surgery on his right hand.
Khan took part in a reality television problem in the UK, and he now feels he’s better prepared to start training for his next fight in March. Whoever it is the 31-year-old Khan will be facing in that month, he’s going to need to start preparing for the contest soon. Even if it’s just a C-level opponent, Khan will still need to put some effort into training camp to get ready. Even weaker opponents can punch. Khan’s inability to take head shots has been well-documented. Khan has been knocked out 3 times in his career, and he’s been hurt a number of other times in his fights. If Khan isn’t fully ready for his comeback fight, he could get stopped again.
”March, July and December,” said Khan in talking about him planning on fighting 3 times in 2018. ”Too heavy,” said Khan when asked if he’d be interested in moving up in weight to face WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders. ”I’m sticking to 147lbs. Yes, it’s been 7 years,” said Khan, when asked if he’ll be fighting in the UK for his next fight.
Khan hasn’t shown the desire to fight 3 times per year since 2011, and that was 6 years ago. It’s next to impossible to believe that Khan will fight 3 times in 2018. I don’t think it’s going to happen. Khan will probably fight in March, like he says he will, but after that, I think he’ll get injured or he’ll get the desire to travel around the world to take another long vacation, and that’ll likely take up his time for the remainder of the year.
Khan doesn’t seem to be all that interested in fighting any longer. He likes to travel, we know that. If Khan doesn’t spent the remainder of 2018 traveling after his fight in March, I think there’s a good chance he’ll get injured and that’ll limit him to just 1 to 2 fights during the year. I definitely don’t see Khan fighting 3 times in 2018. It’ll likely be 1 or 2 times at best.
You can’t fault Khan for not fighting BJ Saunders. That would be criminal to put Khan in with Saunders right now after 2 years out of the ring. That’s not because Saunders is a dangerous puncher, because he’s definitely not. It would be an insane move for Khan to fight another middleweight after what happened to him in his last fight in moving up to the 160lb. weight division for the Canelo match.
Khan’s manager needs to make sure that whoever he faces in his March fight, he’s not put in with anyone with power. Being out of the ring for 2 years like Khan has just done, it puts him in a bad position where he could be vulnerable of getting knocked out when he resumes his career in 2018.