Amir Khan - Britain’s Boxing enigma

At the tender age of seventeen, boxer, Amir Khan (www.amirkhan-boxing.com/) was thrust into the media spotlight after winning a silver medal at the Athens Olympics (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Summer_Olympics) in 2004.  Amir first became interested in boxing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxing) at the age of just eight, a hyperactive child he was a ‘born fighter’ according to his father Shahjaad Khan.  By the age of eleven Khan was boxing competitively.

By the time the Athens Olympics came round Khan was already showing signs of becoming a great boxer, his achievements included; three English schools titles; three Junior ABA titles; gold in the 2003 Junior Olympics; gold in the 2004 European Championships; gold in the 2004 World Junior Championships in South Korean and finally silver at the Olympics in 2004 in Athens.

In Athens, he lost in the final to Mario Kindelan, who had also defeated him a few months prior in the pre Olympic match ups in Greece.  In 2005 however in his last amateur fight live on television Khan got the opportunity to avenge his earlier defeats to Kindelan by beating him.  

After this fight Khan turned professional, signing with Frank Warren, England’s leading boxing promoter.

To date Khans professional career has suffered just one minor hiccup on his Sky Box office debut fighting Breidis Prescott.  Jorge Rubio had just taken over as Khan’s trainer and had trained a fighter previously who had narrowly lost to Prescott and thought that Khan would be able to handle the bigger, taller Prescott who had a prolific knockout record of 17 KO’s in 19 fights.  Khan was knocked down within 25 seconds and after being knocked down again in the first round struggled to make the count, handing him his first professional defeat.

Khan got his career back on track by defeating Oisin Fagan which set him up for his highest profile bout to date against Antonia Barrera.

Barrera was ranked number 1 by the WBO welterweight rankings and Khan ranked at number 9.  The contest was ended in the 5th round after a severe cut reopened following a clash of heads.  Many were impressed by Khans general performance against the fighter who had ended Prince Naseem Hamids (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naseem_Hamed) career.  Khan said, ‘I felt so completely easy, catching him with jabs.  I felt I was on a better level than him.  The jabbing and patience - I felt so strong’.

With a potential world title fight before the end of this year things are on the up for Britain’s best young boxer.  A great role model for young people he has used his position as the most high profile British Asian to encourage better relations between British Asians and the wider community.

An advertising moguls dream in that, similar to Lewis Hamilton, (http://www.lewishamilton.com/) he has the potential to appeal to a much wider audience.  His charitable nature has seen him invest not only money but also much of his time to promoting good causes.  After the 2005 Kashmir Earthquake, Amir went to Pakistan and handed out food parcels to children.  He helped raise over £6000 for a firefighter who was badly burned following an arson attack in Bolton.  He has also spent £1 million of his own money opening Gloves Community Centre and boxing gym in Bolton to help get youths off the streets.