"He's not gonna stop fighting" - Ben Shalom confirms Amir Khan's retirement talks are over
Amir Khan's brief thoughts on retirement are now over, according to Ben Shalom.
Last month, 'King' met Kell Brook in a highly-anticipated rivalry bout in Manchester. Despite the decade-long back-and-forth between the two former champions, the fight was anything but competitive. 'Special K' dominated and stopped his foe via TKO.
Following the fight, Khan strongly hinted at retirement. While making sure not to make anything official, he opined that he likely had taken too much damage in his career and it was time to move on. It seems that the 35-year-old has changed his mind.
Khan's promoter Ben Shalom discussed 'King's' fighting future. The former champion still has a possible rematch clause with Brook. But even if he doesn't fight 'Special K' again, he's not going to retire. Shalom said in an interview with talkSPORT:
“One thing I’ve realised is that he’s not gonna stop fighting, whether I give him the rematch or not. 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, I’m convinced from hearing what the camp are saying, from hearing what he’s saying, he wants to continue. He feels like he got perhaps his camp wrong. That’s up to him. I don’t think the rematch is viable right now, but he wants to continue.”
See Michael Benson's post about Amir Khan below:
Amir Khan is not going to retire from boxing following the Kell Brook defeat, according to BOXXER's Ben Shalom: "One thing I've realised is that he's not gonna stop fighting, whether I give him the rematch or not." [@talkSPORT]
Amir Khan vs. Kell Brook 2 is unlikely
While Amir Khan will likely want another crack at his rival, it's not likely going to happen next.
Ben Shalom confirmed in his interview with talkSPORT that 'King' isn't done in the ring. He did, however, also announce that his return bout isn't likely to be against 'Special K'.
While Khan can try and activate his rematch clause for the bout with Brook, there are more factors that go into the process than just saying he wants the fight. According to the head of BOXXER, the fight needs to make sense, and Brook vs. Khan 2 doesn't right now.
He said:
“No [It's not as simple as Khan just saying he wants the rematch]. It has to work. It’s a split as well. It’s up to him, but also Kell and Sky have to agree. 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.”
Regardless of whether Khan fights Kell Brook next, all indicators seem to be that the former champion seems destined to continue his career.