Amir Khan’s Boxing Academy inaugurated at the Pakistan Sports Complex Islamabad .British champion boxer Amir Khan pays tribute to ‘hero’ Muhammad Ali

Amir Khan’s Boxing Academy inaugurated at the Pakistan Sports Complex Islamabad .British champion boxer Amir Khan pays tribute to ‘hero’ Muhammad Ali

By .Asghar Ali Mubarak

Islamabad -The World Boxing silver welterweight champion Amir Khan on other day inaugurated a boxing academy at the Pakistan Sports Complex Islamabad. The ‘Amir Khan Boxing Academy’ was inaugurated  jointly by Thomas Drew CMG, H.E. British High Commissioner to Pakistan,Amir Khan’s father Sajad Khan , Pakistan Sports Board (PSB)  DG Akhtar Nawaz Ganjera to train young talented boxers in Pakistan. Pakistan Boxing federation secretary Muhammad Akram, international fitness trainer Shahid ul Haq, founder president south asia sports journalists association SASJA  Asghar Ali Mubarak and other dignities were also present at this occasion . Earlier Amir Khan and PSB DG Akhtar Ganjera signed an agreement at Rodham Hall Islamabad. Under the agreement, Khan will provide coaches and equipment for the academy, while the PSB will support its functioning. “I really believe we can make several champions in this sport,” said the British boxer of Pakistani origin. The World Boxing Council Silver welterweight champion Amir, who became Britain’s youngest boxing medalist at the age of 17, has vowed to promote the game in Pakistan and bring out the country’s abundant boxing talent. Talking to the media Amir says, “Whenever I go to Amateur International Boxing Association (AIBA) events, I don’t see countries like Pakistan and it upsets me. “Aspiring boxers can win medals for Pakistan but they don’t have the facilities. This made me come back here and build the Amir Khan Academy established in Islamabad. Furthermore, he stated that Pakistan has a great potential to churn out a number of champions and winners. He will also be seeking the government’s help for launching an academy in the capital city. This decision to create an institute has come after he visited the country back last August with his wife and kid to meet relatives and extended family. He said that he would like to train Pakistani boxers himself and Pakistani talent has immense potential and that the 28-year old boxer firmly believes that all the country needs is better and enhanced training facilities. Amir Khan said that he wants to fight in Pakistan in order to serve the huge fan base he has in the country. Amir also holding a high-end charity event, under the aegis of the Amir Khan Trust raise funds for drilling two wells in Thar. Moreover, the receipts from the boxing event will be used to build water wells in Thar.British boxer Amir Khan has tribute to Muhammad Ali, saying that the boxing icon was a huge hero to him and is the greatest fighter of all time.  Khan paid tribute to Ali after news broke out of his death on 4 June from his family’s native Rawalpindi in Pakistan. “He [Muhammad Ali] was a huge hero to me throughout my whole boxing career and still is a massive hero to me. He is the greatest of all time and I remember watching him at the age of eight-nine-year-old for the first time when I was sat with my father. He was telling me all about his boxing career, how great of a fighter he was, his amazing footwork moving around the ring,” he said.”But what I used to love more about Muhammad Ali was what he did outside of the boxing ring. For example all the charity work, helping the less fortunate and standing up for what he believed,” added Khan.Former world heavyweight champion Ali died at the age of 74, following a respiratory condition that was complicated by Parkinson’s disease. He was diagnosed with the disease in 1984.Nicknamed “The Greatest”, Ali was famous for his quick fists, dazzling footwork and outspoken attitude. He is generally regarded as the greatest heavyweight in the history of boxing and Sports Illustrated named him the top sportsman of the 20th century .Legendary boxer Amir Khan (born 8^th December 1986) is a British professional boxer. He is a former unified WBA and IBF light-welterweight champion, currently holding the WBC Silver welterweight title, and has challenged once for a middleweight world title.As an amateur, Khan Won silver medal in the lightweight division and became Britain’s youngest boxing medalist at the age of 17.He is also one of the youngest ever British world champions, winning the WBA light-welterweight title at the age of 22. The International Business Times ranked him as the 8th best pound for pound boxer in 2011, and he was ranked the 13th best pound for pound boxer by BoxRec in April 2016.As of May 2016, Khan is ranked by The Ring magazine as the world’s second best welterweight.Khan was born and raised in Bolton, Greater Manchester to a Punjabi Rajput family^‘s roots with in Matore village of Kahuta Tehsil, located in Rawalpindi district of the Punjab, Pakistan. He was educated at Smithills School in Bolton,and Bolton Community College. Khan is Muslim, and a member of the Naqshbandi Sufi Order, along with being an active supporter of the Muslim Writers Awards.

Khan has two sisters and one brother, Haroon “Harry” Khan, an undefeated professional boxer. He is the first cousin of English cricketer Sajid Mahmood, related through a paternal grandfather, Lal Khan Janjua, who moved to England after being discharged from the Pakistan Army.

Khan began his amateur career to box competitively at the age of 11, with early honors including three English school titles, three junior ABAtitles, and gold at the 2003 Junior Olympics. In early 2004 he won a gold medal at the European Student Championships in Lithuania, and in South Korea several months later he won world junior lightweight title after fighting five times in seven days. One of his notable early amateur fights was against Victor Ortíz, whom he defeated in a second round stoppage. Overall, he compiled an amateur record of 101–9.

Khan qualified for the 2004 Summer Olympics by finishing in first place at the 1st AIBA European 2004 Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. He was Britain’s sole representative in boxing at the Athens Games, winning a silver medalat the age of 17 in the lightweight boxing category. He was Britain’s youngest Olympic boxer since Colin Jones in 1976. He lost in the final to Mario Kindelan, the Cuban who had also beaten him several months earlier in the pre-Olympic match-ups in Greece. In 2005 he avenged the two losses by beating the 34-year-old Kindelan in his last amateur fight.

2003 – Won a gold medal at the AAU Junior Olympic Games.

2004 – Won a gold medal at the European Student Championships and the World Junior Championships.

2004 – Won the Strandja Cup to qualify for the Olympics in Athens

2004 – Won an amateur match against Victor Ortíz, who was stopped in the second round.

2004 – Won a silver medal at the Olympics, beating Marios Kaperonis, Dimitar Shtilianov, Jong Sub Baik and Serik Yeleuov. He lost to Mario Kindelan in the final.

2005 – Beat Craig Watson on points in the ABA Championships.

2005 – Won the last match of his amateur career beating Mario Kindelan 19–13 at the Reebok Stadium.On 2 February 2008, Khan was scheduled to fight Martin Kristjansen, but illness forced the Dane to withdraw and instead Khan beat Australian Gary St Clair in a contest for the Commonwealth lightweight title at the ExCel Arena in London. This was his first fight to last all 12 rounds and was won via a unanimous 120–108 scoring from all three ringside judges.

On 5 April 2008, Khan beat Kristjansen in the seventh round of a WBO lightweight Title Eliminator. Before the contest, the fighters had been ranked third and fourth respectively by the WBO. After Khan’s victory, he was ranked second, behind only Joel Casamayor.

Following the fight, Khan split from his trainer Oliver Harrison, the trainer for all of his previous 17 professional contests. The break-up was blamed on Harrison’s concerns that Khan’s public engagements were interfering with his fight preparations. Khan’s spokesman told reporters there was “nothing personal” between Khan and Harrison. Dean Powell, who has trained former world champions Duke McKenzie and Lloyd Honeyghan, worked with Khan until a decision on a permanent trainer was made. In the same month, Khan had a training session in Las Vegas with Roger Mayweather, trainer and uncle of Floyd Mayweather, Jr. Khan fought on 21 June 2008, at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham against Irishman Michael Gomez. Gomez, a super champion who was reaching the end of his career and had lost the last one of his six fights, was described as a “backward step” in Khan’s quest for a world title. Khan stated “I think I’m above this level now” and made it clear that he expected a fast and explosive finish to the fight knocking down Gomez two times in the fight and a great finish. However, after the fight, Khan said he felt he had moved up a level by “fighting a good fighters like Gomez”. Khan received criticism for being knocked down in the second round, but proved his resilience by coming back stronger after this. Former boxing champion Barry McGuigan seemed unimpressed after the fight and said Khan needed at least two more fights before he should consider a world title bout.

A month after the Gomez fight, it was announced that Jorge Rubio would become Khan’s new trainer. Rubio was chosen because Khan thought that he had very good chemistry with the Cuban trainer. Khan said, “Rubio was showing me all these new training techniques, and I felt so comfortable because it suited my style. I knew I had the hand speed and the footwork to do it and I knew it was going to make me a much better fighter”.

In early August, the lightweight Breidis Prescott was chosen by Rubio as Khan’s next opponent. Rubio had trained a fighter who had narrowly lost to Prescott before and thought that Khan would be able to handle the bigger Prescott, who had a prolific knock-out record of 17 KOs in 19 contests. On 6 September 2008, Khan was a huge favorite and was hoping to win a world title by the end of the year. Prescott came out fast in the fight and landed some good shots; a stiff jab jerked Khan’s head back and foreshadowed what was to come. Prescott landed a left hook that jabbed Khan’s temple; dizzying his senses. Instead of holding, Khan tried to punch back, but instead was punched on the head by a left hook, right hook combo, sending him crashing to the canvas. He managed to get to his feet. Prescott ended it for good with another left that put Khan down again. This time, he was unable to get up. It was officially over in 55 seconds. The fight was at the Manchester on Khan’s Sky Box Office debut.

Following his defeat to Prescott, Frank Warren sacked Khan’s trainer Jorge Rubio and replaced him with Freddie Roach. Khan began training with Roach in the United States, where he sparred with the WBC lightweight champion and pound-for-pound champion Manny Pacquiao, who is also being trained by Roach. On 6 December 2008, Khan recorded a comeback win against Oisin Fagan in a second-round stoppage. With victory, Khan won the vacant WBA International lightweight title. Khan knocked Fagan down twice in the first round and Fagan’s corner threw in the towel in the second, after being knocked down again. In early 2009, it was announced that Khan would fight former seven-time and three-weight world champion Marco Antonio Barrera on 14 March, at the Manchester Evening News Arena. Frank Warren promoted Khan’s fight against the veteran Barrera, perhaps Khan’s highest-profile opponent to date. Barrera was ranked No. 1 and Khan No. 5 in the WBO world lightweight rankings. Previous IBF and WBO lightweight title holder Nate Campbell was stripped of the belts after moving up to the light welterweight division and Khan’s promoter Frank Warren and Barrera’s promoter Don King lobbied the WBO to elevate the Khan-Barrera fight to a world lightweight title eliminator. However, the world-title status was instead given to the fight between Juan Manuel Márquez and Juan Diaz, ranked No. 2 and No. 3 respectively by the WBO.

On 14 March 2009, at the MEN Arena in Manchester, England, Khan defeated Barrera, by a technical decision. The fight was stopped towards the end of the fifth round due to Barrera suffering a cut in the first round, which resulted from a clash of heads. With Barrera deemed in no position to fight on by the ringside doctor, the fight then went to the scorecards where Khan was ahead on all three (50–44, 50–45, 50–45). With victory, Khan defended his WBA International lightweight title and also won the vacant WBO Inter-Continental lightweight title.

Frank Warren was sufficiently impressed with Khan’s performance that he vowed to land a world title fight for him before the end of the year.

There was a lot on his shoulders, but I always felt he could rise to the big occasion. I’d like to see him get a belt round his waist by the end of this year.

Khan also commented on the fight, saying:

I felt so completely easy, catching him with jabs. I felt like I was on a better level than him. The jabbing and patience – I felt so strong. You could see the difference. I had to take some shots in that match. I made some mistakes in the past and I’m not going to make them again.

On 18 July 2009, Khan moved up to the light welterweight division to fight Andreas Kotelnik at the MEN Arena in Manchester for the WBA light welterweight title. Khan won by a unanimous decision, 120–108, 118–111, 118–111, and became the third-youngest Brit to win a world title, at the age of 22.

On 6 October 2009, Frank Warren confirmed that Khan would defend his WBA light welterweight title against undefeated Ukrainian American boxer Dmitry Salita, the mandatory challenger, on 5 December, at the Metro Radio Arena in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. Due to Khan being a practising Muslim and Salita being an Orthodox Jew, the fight was hyped as a religious clash by the media, referring to it as a “battle of faiths” or “holy war“, though Khan and Salita have both denied such claims. On 5 December 2009, Khan defeated mandatory challenger Salita in 76 seconds, winning by TKO in the first round. Salita was knocked down three times, the first time after just 10 seconds into the fight. It was the first ever loss of Salita’s career.On 17 January 2010, Khan announced he had split with British promoter Frank Warren and signed a deal with Oscar De La Hoya and Golden Boy Promotions, with Khan’s fights moving back to ITV.