It was 15 years ago (September 6, 2008) when an unbeaten, hugely promising Amir Khan was sensationally wiped out in less than 60 seconds by a relatively unknown Colombian named Breidis Prescott. Though Khan would regroup and win himself two 140 pound world titles, the talk at the time of his ‘Gone in 60 Seconds’ loss to Prescott was that Khan, a silver medal winner at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, would not be able to recover after being so ruthlessly and quickly knocked out.
18-0 at the time of the Prescott fight, 21 year old Khan had been rocked and hurt in a couple of his previous fights (Willie Limond and Michael Gomez making fans wonder if Khan had a ‘suspect chin’) but nobody expected him to be knocked out by Prescott. The long-armed Colombian was three years the older man on the night and Prescott was also unbeaten, at 19-0.
Fans at The MEN Arena in Manchester watched in shock as Prescott wobbled Khan mere seconds after the opening bell sounded, with the visiting fighter then sending Khan crashing to the mat with a huge left hand to the chin. Khan, working purely on instinct, got up, wobbled backwards into a corner, before he was violently slammed to the canvas by another left hand bomb. Khan tried with all his might to get back up again (never let it be said Khan lacked real fighting heart) but he was gone. It was all over after just :54 seconds.
Prescott had smashed his way onto the big stage, and fans wondered how good he really was, how far Prescott could go. As it turned out, as Khan rebuilt himself, Prescott would go on to lose more than he won. Losses to Miguel Vazquez, Kevin Mitchell, Paul McCloskey, Mike Alvarado, and Terence Crawford saw Prescott become a trial horse type. As of late 2021, Prescott has a 31-19 record. We will never know what would have happened had Prescott fought Khan a second time as he wanted to do.
Instead, Khan went on to defeat Andreas Kotelnik to become WBA champ at 140 pounds, with Khan then defeating good fighters like Paulie Malignaggi, Zab Judah, and, in arguably Khan’s biggest career win, Marcos Maidana.
Khan showed real heart, courage, and desire in bouncing back from what was a terrible KO loss. Many a fighter would have been forever gun-shy after meeting such a fate.
