Amir Khan reveals two huge fights he missed out on and opens up on retirement
- Joe Hewlett
- 17 May 2022
Amir Khan spoke to Planet Sport in a media Zoom call on Monday and spoke about Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao and why he retired.
Amir Khan did almost everything in his career.
Won a medal at the 2004 Olympic Games, won two world titles by the age of 24 and fought the biggest names of a generation, including Canelo Alvarez.
However, there are two names from the welterweight division who are missing from his resume - Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao.
Replying to a question by Planet Sport, Khan admitted they were two fighters he wanted to fight but couldn't make.
"I met Floyd a couple of days ago, really respectful. The guy's a legend really in the sport of boxing, you can't take nothing away from him.
"Even though me and him never fought each other, it's one of them things. But for him to say he knows who Amir Khan is, it's amazing.
"He came and called me by my name, I mean that's a legend of the game you know. You would put him in the same [bracket] as Muhammed Ali.
"He will be remembered as all the other great fighters. At the end of the day you can't take nothing away from Floyd, he's a great fighter. But it was nice that he called me from my name, then obviously acknowledged me and had a really good chat with me"
Maybe Pacquiao needs to return
On Pacquiao, Khan wondered whether he would want to comeback fight following his unsuccessful attempt at the Philippines elections.
"Manny is like a friend, obviously I think he lost the elections not that he'd be too happy. You know it's funny because when I call it a day from the sport, I got a couple of phone calls from Manny's team saying, 'are you really retiring'.
"Now I'm like, know when there's times where you always think this fights going to happen, maybe you wait and you never call retirement or you still have your eye on that fight.
"I don't think that fight was ever going to happen, I don't know why they kept saying 'he will take you in that fight', it never happened, I think now that I'm retiring they've said 'are you really retiring' like it was a bit of a shock to them cause they though Manny might want to take that fight.
"But I'm like hell no, now that Manny has spent all that money on the elections I think he might need a fight, but I don't think it will be me."
One punch away from getting hurt
Khan had a rematch clause against Kell Brook following his sixth-round defeat to the Sheffield fighter.
Despite Brook retiring, Khan insisted he could have got another 'big paycheck' but put his health and family first.
"Obviously that was contracted, I had it in (the) contract but like I said I'm not going to take a fight where I don't feel 100%.
"It's me, it's not that I lost a fight and I'm gonna do it for greed because I would've got a big paycheck again. I don't have it in me anymore to fight anyone even for that money or if someone offered me a big huge amount of money.
"Once you've called it a day you've called it a day. I want to spend time with my family, I was one punch away from getting hurt and I don't wanna be that fighter that got hurt from the sport of boxing so I'm glad that I called it a day."
