My nose is a little bruised and bent but only I can tell how bad it is,” Amir Khan says as he smiles ruefully when reminded that nine years ago this summer he made his debut as a professional boxer. Khan tweaks his fighter’s nose gently as if he cannot believe how much he has endured since joining the paid ranks of this battered old business as an Olympic silver medallist and teenage sensation in July 2005.“So much has happened since then,” he says. “I’ve come back from losses and won world titles. I’ve boxed in the UK and America, won fight of the year and moved up three weight classes. I’ve achieved so much and I’m still only 27. But I feel fresh, which is amazing when you think of all the hard fights and hard training. I’ve been boxing since I was eight and that’s a long time to take punches day after day.”
Khan is engaging and eloquent and, like most boxers, he prefers a genuine conversation to a conventional question-and-answer routine. Being hit in the face also instils a rare candour in fighters like Khan. “I’m in a sport where one punch can change your life,” he says intently at his gym in Bolton. “I understand why my mum and my wife can’t bear to watch me fight. There’s a lot of blood, a lot of pain. I’m a fighter but I find it very hard to watch my brother [Haroon – an unbeaten super-flyweight with a professional record of 5-0] because there’s nothing you can do to help him. It must be hell for my mum.” Read full Story>>>
