Amir Khan announces his retirement

British star won Olympic silver medal, unified junior welterweight titles

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From being a 17-year-old Olympic silver medalist to unifying junior welterweight world titles and being involved in many big-time fights, Amir Khan has been part of the boxing landscape at the highest level throughout his career.

But that has now come to an end as Khan on Friday announced his retirement after a 17-year professional career and 10 years before that as an amateur.

“It’s time to hang up my gloves,” Khan posted to social media. “I feel blessed to have had such an amazing career that has spanned over 27 years. I want to say a heartfelt thanks and to the incredible teams I have worked with and to my family, friends and fans for the love and support they have shown me.”

During his 2005 to 2022 career, Khan faced many top opponents, won two world titles and engaged in several dramatic fights.

At his best, Khan (34-6, 21 KOs), 35, had blazing fast hands and good power and skills, but was haunted by a weak chin that saw him stopped in five of his losses. He was undeterred to the end though, concluding his career with a long-awaited showdown with British rival and former welterweight titlist Kell Brook in a fight contracted at 149 pounds.

Although years past when their fight would have significant pound-for-pound implications, they finally met on Feb. 19 in a major event in Manchester, England, where Brook dominated and stopped Khan in sixth round.

Brook announced is retirement last Saturday, but Khan strongly considered fighting on before making his announcement. After losing to Brook, however, he seemed to see the writing on the wall.

“Forty fights, a lot of fights, winning two world titles, fighting in America and around the world,” Khan said following the defeat. “I need to sit down with my family, but I think it’s more toward the end of my career. That love of the sport is not there anymore like it was before. When I was in the ring before I used to have that excitement and that push but I didn’t have it in me. I felt quite flat. I think that’s maybe a sign for me that I should be calling it a day. But let’s see.

“I’m gonna go back, watch the video. Kell obviously came trained. He looked really, really good and he was ready. It’s very hard to beat a guy who just wants to win. I had a great training camp but he must have had a bit better than me. So let’s see where we go from here.”

The British-born son of Pakistani immigrants, Khan launched himself into the British consciousness by claiming an Olympic silver medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics. At 17, he became Great Britain’s youngest boxing medalist.

Guided by promoter Frank Warren during the early part of his career, Khan turned pro in July 2005 and eventually became a major star.

In 2008, he suffered a shocking first-round knockout loss to Breidis Prescott that left his chin being questioned for the rest of his career. Nonetheless, Khan faced a who’s who of top names.

He scored his first significant win in 2009, two fights after the Prescott loss, when he won a bloody fifth-round technical decision over faded Hall of Famer Marco Antonio Barrera.

In his next fight, in July 2009, Khan easily outpointed Andriy Kotelnik to take his WBA junior welterweight title.

Khan would make five successful defenses against Dmitriy Salita, Paulie Malignaggi (in his American debut in Malignaggi’s hometown of New York), Marcos Maidana (in a rousing Las Vegas battle), Paul McCloskey and a fifth-round body-shot knockout of Zab Judah to take his IBF belt in a unification fight.

In Khan’s first defense of the unified title, he traveled to Lamont Peterson’s hometown of Washington, D.C., and lost a hugely controversial split decision in December 2011.

They were set for a March 2012 rematch in Las Vegas, but the fight was canceled 10 days beforehand when Peterson tested positive for synthetic testosterone. The WBA stripped Peterson and re-instated Khan as its champion.

The rematch was never rescheduled and Khan instead met WBC titlist Danny Garcia to unify belts and for the vacant Ring magazine title in July 2012 in Las Vegas. It was a competitive fight until Garcia stopped Khan in the fourth round.

Khan would move up to welterweight and go on to defeat opponents such as former world titleholders Luis Collazo, Devin Alexander and Chris Algieri but he would lose two more world title fights by knockout.

He stepped up to middleweight (at a 155-pound catch weight) to challenge WBC champion Canelo Alvarez and got knocked out in spectacular fashion in the sixth round in 2016. A two-year layoff followed and in 2019, Khan was stopped in the sixth round challenging WBO welterweight titlist Terence Crawford.

Khan notched his final win in his next fight when he knocked out former featherweight titlist Billy Dib in the fourth round in Saudi Arabia before ending a 2½-year layoff to face Brook.

Photo: Boxxer

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