Amir Khan takes on one of boxing’s hottest properties in Terence Crawford this weekend at New York’s Madison Square Gardens.
The current WBO welterweight champion has held titles in three weight classes, was the first undisputed light-welterweight champion since Kosta Tszyu in 2004 and has been compared to the great Sugar Ray Leonard by promoter Bob Arum.
Long story short - Khan has his work cut out for him on Saturday night.
Despite a lot of unfair criticism directed at him throughout his career, the boxer from Bolton has a history of mixing it up with the best out there and has picked up some impressive wins along the way. Below are five of his best performances:
Vs Marcos Maidana (Dec 11th, 2010, Las Vegas)
‘King Khan’ made his Vegas debut against the tough-as-nails Argentine Marcos Maidana in a thriller at the Mandalay Bay Hotel & Casino.
It was almost over inside the first round when Khan landed a wonderful combination of body punches and dropped his opponent to the canvas but it nearly ended in disaster for Khan in the tenth when he was dazed by a crunching right hand and a subsequent flurry of uppercuts.
He managed to survive the onslaught and regained his composure over the next two rounds to claim a unanimous points decision.
Vs Zab Judah (Jul 23rd, 2011, Las Vegas)
Under the tutelage of trainer Freddie Roach, Khan returned to Vegas for the second time in seven months.
Khan put in a career-best performance against Judah, bamboozling the American over five rounds before stopping the affair with a big body punch to unify the IBF and WBA super-lightweight titles.
Vs Paulie Malignaggi (May 15th, 2010, New York)
It’s no secret that Amir Khan’s best weapon is his phenomenal speed and he used it to great effect at Madison Square Gardens against Paulie Malignaggi, whose only defeats at the time were against Miguel Cotto, Ricky Hatton, and Juan Diaz - a loss he’d already avenged.
Khan was winning every round before stopping ‘The Magic Man’ in the eleventh.
Vs Devon Alexander (Dec 13th, 2014, Las Vegas)
Now under veteran trainer Virgil Hunter’s guidance, Amir Khan followed his game plan down to a tee and patiently outboxed the talented former world champion over 12 rounds.
One judge scored every round in Khan’s favour.
Vs Luis Collazo (May 3rd, 2014, Las Vegas)
Unbeaten since 2011, Luis Collazo was billed as a potential banana skin to Khan going into this one on the undercard of Floyd Mayweather and Maidana’s first scrap at the MGM Grand.
However, it ended up as one-sided as a fight can get, with Collazo barely landing a punch over the course of 12 rounds, allowing Khan to cruise to a unanimous points win.
