Amir Khan's Biography

Who is Amir Khan?

Amir Khan was born on 8th December, 1986 in Bolton.

Khan came to prominence in the 2004 Athens Olympics in which he was Britain’s only boxing representative and won the silver medal. The seventeen year old beat off some of the world’s best in the lightweight category (60kg), only to be stopped by the Cuban Mario Kindelan in the final. Amir Khan became Britain's youngest Olympic boxer since Colin Jones in 1976.

His club is Bury ABC where his coach is Mick Jelley.

Before turning professional, Amir Khan notched up: 3 English schools titles, 3 junior ABA titles, Junior Olympic champion 2003, European champion 2004, World Junior champion 2004. After the July 2005 bombings in London, Amir Khan, a Muslim, dedicated his professional debut fight win over David Bailey to the victims of the bomb attacks.

Amir Khan trained at the same Salford gym as cricketer, Freddie Flintoff. Amir Khan is the cousin of cricketer Sajid Mahmood. 

In December 2006, Amir Khan survived a seventh-round knock down by Rachid Drilzane to claim the vacant IBF inter-continental light welterweight belt. However he indicated that he would return to the 10-stone ranks. In February 2007, Amir Khan knocked out Mohammed Medjadi after just 55 seconds. After the fight, promoter Frank Warren said: "Amir's not going to fight for a world title this year, so everyone can get that out of their heads ... It's easy to make world title fights. But there have been so many fighters who have screwed up their careers because they were on an ego trip and weren't ready for it." Amir Khan came 22nd in The Independent's list of Britain's happiest people.

On 14 July 2007, Amir Khan beat Willie Limond to win the Commonwealth lightweight title. It was an easier fight for Khan on 8 December 2007, his 21st birthday, when it took him just 72 seconds to stop Graham Earl and retain his Commonwealth lightweight title. In February 2008 Amir Khan won his toughest professional fight to-date when he defeated the Australian, Gairy St Clair, on points.

He followed up in April 2008 by beating Martin Kristjansen, stopping him in the seventh round. In June 2008 Amir Khan successfully defended his Commonwealth lightweight title with a victory against Michael Gomez, whom he stopped in the fifth round. It was not all plain sailing for Amir Khan, who was knocked down in the third round.

On 6 September 2008, Amir Khan suffered his first defeat as a professional when he was knocked out inside the first minute of his WBO intercontinental lightweight title defence by Breidis Prescott of Columbia. On 6 December 2008, Amir Khan came back from his defeat by Breidis Prescott with an easy second-round victory over Oisin Fagan.

In March 2009, Amir Khan beat Marco Antonio Barrera at Manchester's MEN Arena. Amir Khan won with a fifth-round technical decision after Marco Antonio Barrera had come off worse from a first round clash of heads. On 18 July 2009, Amir Khan beat Andreas Kotelnik to take the WBA light-welterweight title. Khan outpointed Kotelnik's 120-108 and 118-111 (twice) with the judges.

On December 5, 2009, Khan defended his title with a 76-second victory over Dmitriy Salita. In May 2010, Amir's father Shah Khan told the BBC that Amir Khan's brother Haroon would fight for Pakistan at the Commonwealth Games. In May 2010, Amir Khan successfully defended his WBA light-welterweight title, stopping Paulie Malignaggi in the 11th round. In December 2010, Amir Khan once again successfully defended his WBA light-welterweight title - this time with a unanimous points victory over Marcos Maidana.

In April 2011, Amir Khan defeated Paul McCloskey after a clash of heads in the sixth round led to the referee stopping the fight due to a cut above McCloskey's eye. The 3 judges scored khan ahead 60-54. In July 2011, Amir Khan knocked out Zab Judah in five rounds in their light-welterweight unification fight.

On 11 December 2011, Amir Khan lost on points to Lamont Peterson, thereby losing his WBA and IBF light-welterweight titles. However, Peterson failed a drugs test that rendered the result void and the WBA returned the belt to Khan in time for his fight against WBC champion Danny Garcia. On 14 July 2012, Amir Khan was stopped in the fourth round by Danny Garcia and so he lost his WBA light-welterweight belt. It meant that Khan's record became 26-3. On 27 April 2013, Amir Khan beat Mexican Julio Diaz, with all the judges scoring in his favour with scores of 114-113, 115-113, 115-112.

On 3 February 2016, it was revealed that Amir Khan would fight Saul Alvarez for the WBC world middleweight title on 7 May 2016 in Las Vegas.

However, when the fight took place, with Khan jumping two weight divisions, Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez knocked out Khan in the sixth round to retain his WBC middleweight title.

On 26 February 2017, it was announced that Amir Khan would fight WBO world welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao on 23 April, however the fight never took place.

In 2017, he became one of the celebrities on I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here.

He came fifth.

Amir Khan's return to the boxing ring was on 21 April 2018, when he easily defeated Phil Lo Greco in Liverpool after two knocks downs and a finish in 39 seconds.

In April 2019, he fought Terence Crawford for the WBO welterweight title, but Amir Khan lost in unusual circumstances, when his trainer Virgil Hunter stepped in to call off the contest in the sixth round.

On 12 July 2019, Amir Khan gained the WBC international welterweight title when he stopped Billy Dib in four rounds.

In August 2020, BBC Three commissioned an 8 part series Meet The Khans: Big in Bolton, featuring Amir and his wife Faryal.

Amir Khan was scheduled to fight Kell Brook in the Manchester Arena on Saturday 19 February 2022. He lost, with the referee stopping the fight in the sixth round.

In 2022, before series two of Meet The Khans: Big in Bolton, Amir Khan and his wife Faryal spoke to BBC Three about being held at gunpoint, being injured before he fought Kell Brook, and whether he'll carry on boxing.

In 2023, Amir Khan was banned for two years after an anti-doping test revealed the presence of a banned substance following his fight against Kell Brook in the previous year.

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