Amir Khan won't retire; wants to continue fighting

Amir Khan will continue fighting. That’s according to promoter Ben Shalmon.

Khan, a former junior welterweight titlist, was stopped by arch-rival Kell Brook in the sixth round of their long-hyped all-British clash on February 19 in Manchester.

Although it was a one-sided affair from the onset, Khan still has a contractual right for an immediate rematch should he choose to exercise that option. However, that could be a difficult fight to sell, given how badly Khan was beaten.

Shalom, the head of Boxxer, which promoted Khan-Brook, stated that regardless of whether Khan cannot secure a rematch with Brook, he will not hang up the gloves.

“One thing I’ve realized is that he’s not gonna stop fighting, whether I give him the rematch or not,” Shalom told talkSPORT. “That’s up to him; he’s a fighter; he knows what happened in that fight better than any of us.”

“He won’t stop,” Shalom continued. “I’m convinced from hearing what the camp are saying, from hearing what he’s saying, he wants to continue.”

Shalom added that Khan believes his training camp could be to blame for his bad performance. The 35-year-old joined forces with Brian McIntyre, who trains WBO welterweight titlist Terence Crawford, ahead of the Brook fight. Crawford scored a sixth-round stoppage of Khan in their April 2019 ESPN pay-per-view main event in New York City.

“He feels like he got, perhaps, his camp wrong,” Shalom said. “That’s up to him.”

Shalom also opined that the Brook rematch is likely improbable, but Khan is not thinking retirement.

“I don’t think the rematch is viable right now, but he wants to continue,” Shalom said. “Look, we’ll see; he’s got a couple of weeks to decide what he wants to do. It’s up to him at the end of the day, but I don’t think it’ll be the rematch.”