Amir Khan is a British boxing icon following Olympics success and a two-time world championship winning pro campaign.
The fan favourite from Bolton was known for his stellar hand speed and good power, and went undefeated in 18 bouts before a first round knockout loss at the hands of Breidis Prescott.
That defeat exposed some defensive vulnerabilities in ‘King’ Khan, and though he recovered to go on an eight fight win streak against big names like Zab Judah and Marcos Maidana, he would lose by stoppage on a further four occasions.
Speaking to The Ring Magazine, Khan named Saul ‘Canelo‘ Alvarez – who laid him out dangerously in the sixth round of their 2016 fight – as the man who hit him hardest.
“When [Canelo] hit me, I didn’t really feel the punch, I was knocked out before I hit the floor. I do remember everything. There was one fight I don’t remember anything against Maidana. I’d rather be knocked out with one shot than take millions of shots like that because that definitely can affect you. [Against Breidis Prescott] that didn’t really feel that because I was still young.”
Canelo would later move up to super-middleweight, where he unified all four major titles and remained dominant, only suffering the second loss of his career in a move up to light heavyweight to face Dmitry Bivol.
The Mexican icon has 39 stoppages from 66 fights – a 63% KO to win ratio – but is currently on a run of five points decisions. He will hope to end that with a statement on May 3 when he faces William Scull in a bid to become two-time undisputed in the division.
