LAS VEGAS — Junior welterweight titlist Amir Khan has an important and potentially very difficult fight in front of him, but that has not stopped him and his team from looking into their crystal ball and thinking about the future and a move up in weight.
First things first, though. Khan faces fellow titlist Zab Judah to unify 140-pound belts on Saturday night (HBO, 10 ET) at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in what could be an explosive fight.
Khan originally thought he would be facing another titleholder, Timothy Bradley Jr., but that was before Bradley surprisingly declined the fight he had called out for, even after being offered everything he could have possibly wanted — a career-high payday (that could have reached about $1.8 million) and a 50-50 deal.
Judah, with speed and power in both hands like Khan has, jumped at the chance to take his place. To many, Judah poses an even greater danger than Bradley would have.
Khan knows that. So too does trainer Freddie Roach. That’s why Khan hunkered down for a full 10-week training camp at Roach’s Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood, Calif.
This time there were no jaunts halfway around the world in the middle of training camp.
“We had a great camp, 10 weeks with no traveling, no jet lag,” Roach said at Thursday’s heavily attended final news conference.
The same could not be said for previous training camps. Before Khan’s rousing December victory, also at Mandalay Bay, against powerful Marcos Maidana — a fight the Boxing Writers Association of America voted the 2010 fight of the year — Khan traveled to the Philippines, where Roach needed to be because he was simultaneously training Khan and pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao.
When you’re Pacquiao, you get to train where you want to and everyone else follows. That meant if Khan wanted Roach, he had to go along. After weeks in the Philippines, they all returned to Hollywood for several weeks before Khan followed them to the fight site in suburban Dallas, where he continued training.
Before Khan (25-1, 17 KOs) fought Paulie Malignaggi in May 2010, there was also a heavy dose of travel in the midst of the training camp. Khan came from England but wound up training in Vancouver because of visa issues that prevented him from staying in the United States. When they were eventually resolved, he went briefly to Hollywood and then to New York for the fight.
Finally, though, there has been peace in preparation for Judah (41-6, 28 KOs).
“This camp has been very smooth,” Khan said. “We arrived in Los Angeles before the fight with Zab Judah was officially announced because we knew that the July 23 date was set in stone for my fight. When Timothy Bradley declined our last offer, we made a deal with Judah and we’ve been focusing on him since early June.
“Obviously, not traveling to the Philippines, Dallas or even Vancouver has made this an easier camp. There’s obviously less distractions this time, although going to the Philippines to train with Manny was a terrific experience. Any chance to train with one of the best fighters in the world is always an opportunity worth taking.”
And now Khan finds himself in Las Vegas fighting for the second time in arguably the most significant fight of his career. Judah, 33, a three-time 140-pound titlist and former undisputed welterweight champion, is the biggest name Khan will have faced.
It’s exactly where Khan wants to be. When he was a prospect on the rise best-known for winning a 2004 Olympic silver medal for Britain, he came to Las Vegas as a spectator for the Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Oscar De La Hoya megafight in May 2007.
Khan sat in the stands during the weigh-in with no special floor access and went unnoticed by almost everyone. But he told a reporter how one day he hoped to be a world champion and fight in a Las Vegas main event.
“I had ambition to fight in Vegas one day, to top the bill,” Khan, 24, recalled Thursday. “A lot of U.K. fighters come here late in their careers, but I didn’t want to be one of them. I wanted to come to America early in my career and build my name up. What made me want to fight here more was training at the Wild Card gym. Spending more time in America in my training camps made me realize, wow, the boxing world is totally different in America.”
Khan has been training in the United States since turning to Roach in the wake of his only loss, a first-round knockout shocker to Breidis Prescott at lightweight in 2008. That loss gave Khan the reputation for having a weak chin, an assertion Roach does not buy.
“At 135, he didn’t take that good of a punch because he was killing himself making the weight,” Roach said. “He moved to 140 and he was much more durable, much more sturdy and handled the punches being thrown at him a lot better.”
That is why Khan and Roach say he is destined for the 147-pound welterweight division in the not-too-distant future.
“I think the same at 147, he’ll have a little more strength,” Roach said. “If [another] unification fight doesn’t come next, we’ll probably go to 147 next.”
Said Khan, “If we get through Saturday, maybe one more fight at 140 pounds if the Bradley fight ever happens. If not, then we have no one left to beat in the 140-pound division and maybe we have to move up to 147 pounds. I have the best strength and conditioner in Alex Ariza, who I know can get me in the best shape and get me muscular and stronger.”
Ariza is back with Khan after they reconciled following a brief falling out that had Khan without his services for his April win against Paul McCloskey.
At welterweight, there are big names. Pacquiao is there, of course, but they have grown close training and sparring together. Plus Roach trains them both. They say that fight is not an option. But there is also Mayweather or his Sept. 17 opponent, titlist Victor Ortiz.
“Amir fought Ortiz in the amateurs and beat him, knocked him out in two,” Roach said. “As far as Mayweather, I think he’s a perfect opponent for us. I think sizewise, moneywise, it’s a good fight for us. But we gotta see who wins that fight between him and Victor.”
Said Khan, “I think everyone knows I’ve got a big task in front of me. I’ve got Zab Judah. My goals are to take the best out there and the likes of Floyd Mayweather one day. At the moment, I want to take things a step at a time.
“I’ll probably move up to 147 for bigger challenges. I think it’s a great time for me to move up to different divisions and fight these big names. There’s a lot of big names out there and that’s the reason I cannot afford to get beat. I want to get through this fight and then go to the bigger fights.”
Khan has even suggested that he could move all the way to the 154-pound junior middleweight division someday.
“I’ve got the height to do that,” said Khan, who is 5-foot-10. “I know fighters who are the same height as me who are middleweights and super middleweights. So I think maybe one day that could be a weight toward the end of my career.”
Said Roach, “154 right now isn’t really in my thoughts. I think 147 will be the right division for him. With success there, 154 could come later on in life. But that’s a long way off.”
Especially with important 140-pound business to attend to first on Saturday.
