Khan has “shock” news in next 10 days

Boxingnews24.com

By Tim Royner:

Amir Khan reportedly has big “shock” news that he’ll be announcing in the next 10 days, according to Talk Sports. Presumably, this will be Khan talking about his opponent for his long delayed comeback fight in late March.

The 31-year-old Khan (31-4, 19 KOs) has been resting up for the last 2 years, traveling and taking part in reality television. It’s similar to how Victor Ortiz has stayed out of the ring, doing television, and other dealing with other non-boxing commitments.

Khan’s next fight in early 2018 will be in the UK. This will be his first fight back in that country since 2013, when he beat Julio Diaz by a questionable 12 round unanimous decision. Diaz was brought as B-side opponent for Khan to showcase his talent. Khan ended up getting knocked down in the 4th, and staggered on two separate occasions. Diaz dominated much of the fight, and appeared to do enough to deserve the victory. The fight took place in Sheffield, England.

”There are some big announcements I will make within the next 10 days before I go back to training in America. This is news everyone is going to be shocked at hearing,”said Khan to Talksport.com.

We’re probably going to see Khan fight a notable British fighter for his March fight. Khan is fighting in the UK for the first time in years, and there will be pressure on him to fight a recognizable name like Frankie Gavin at the very least. Khan would shock a lot of boxing fans if he finally agreed to face Kell Brook. The fight is stale at this point with Brook having been stopped in his last 2 fights, and Khan in his last one against Saul Alvarez. There would still be interest though in a Khan-Brook fight, if only in the UK.

Bigger news would be Khan fighting Keith Thurman, Errol Spence Jr. or Terence Crawford. It would have to be one of those 3 to get fans energized Khan’s career. Brook looks to be past his prime at this point. Khan isn’t going to get fans worked up about that fight. Khan should have fought Brook 5 years ago in 2013. Khan has let the Khan-Brook fight build all this time the way Floyd Mayweather Jr. did with the Manny Pacquiao fight. Pacquiao was still popular at the time Mayweather fought him.

Khan leaving a promoter or perhaps his manager is what some might think with his comment. But it’s going to be more interesting than that. If Khan signs with Eddie Hearn or one of the major U.S promotional companies like Top Rank or Golden Boy, then that could be seen as shocking news. But at this point in Khan’s career, it doesn’t matter who promotes the guy. He’s already well known, and he’ll be able to get the big names to fight him no matter who promotes him. What would be a bigger deal is if Khan announces that he’ll be fighting someone like Adrien Broner or Shawn Porter in his tune-up fight. I don’t think that’s going to happen.

Khan will need to be cautious in his next fight, because he’s been inactive for ages and he was knocked out badly the last time he fought. If there are any lingering aftereffects from his brutal knockout at the hands of Saul Canelo Alvarez, we could see them when he fights again. Khan has been knocked out by a lightweight in Briedis Prescott, so pretty much any welterweight that shares the ring with him will have a better than average chance of knocking him out as well. Khan needs to fight defensively in his first fight back, because whoever faces him is going to be sitting down on his punches looking to KO him with every swing.

Khan said this week that he plans on winning another world championship again, and he’s going to “clean up the division.” He wants to fight 3 times in 2018. Fight number 1 will be a tune-up for Khan in March. Khan wants WBA/WBC welterweight champion Keith ‘One Time’ Thurman or Adrien Broner after that, although he says he’d be happy to fight Danny Garcia or Lamont Peterson as well. We’ll see if Khan can get any of those guys to agree to fight him in 2018. It’s an ambitious schedule for Khan to stay active by fighting 3 times. Khan fought three times in 2011, when he fought Paul McCloskey, Zab Judah and Lamont Peterson.

Rebuilding Khan’s brand won’t be easy. He’s seen as a fighter that is on the slide as far his skills go. He ran out of gas against Chris Algieri and Saul Canelo Alvarez in his last 2 fights. Tiring against Canelo resulted in Khan being stopped in the 6th round in May 2016. Khan’s reaction to being knocked out is a classic form of aversion. Some fighters react to losing by getting back in the gym and fighting shortly after that. Other fighters avoid fighting and disappear for years on end before they finally resume their careers. The experience of losing obviously is such a negative that these fighters don’t want to get back in the ring and try and learn from the experience. Khan is the latter type. He’s not shown the desire to continue fighting until now. The 2 years out of the ring is going to make it an arduous task for Khan to get back to where he was in 2016, which wasn’t a good place. Khan looked terrible against Algieri, and he was badly knocked out by Canelo.

Khan wants Thurman and Errol Spence Jr. Fighting Thurman in 2018 is unrealistic. Thurman has a tune-up in April against Jessie Vargas followed by fights against Shawn Porter and Danny Garcia. Thurman says he wants to fight 3 times in 2018, just like Khan. However, Thurman, 28, is brittle at this point in his career, and that makes it unlikely that he’ll fight more than once this year. At this rate, Khan might need to wait until 2020 before Thurman is healthy enough to fight him. Spence is the best option for Khan if he wants to fight for a world title in 2018, but he’s also the worst option. Spence is looking great right now, and he might smash the ring-rusty Khan in 2 or 3 rounds.

If Khan loses his tune-up fight in March, it will be over for him. Khan could continue to fight afterwards, but his career would be effectively over with. Getting beaten by a tune-up level opponent would be too big of a blow for Khan to keep his sinking ship from going down.