by Geoffrey Ciani (Interviewed by Jenna J & Geoffrey Ciani) – This week’s 114th edition of On the Ropes Boxing Radio featured an exclusive interview with WBA junior welterweight champion Amir Khan (24-1, 17 KOs) who is scheduled to defend his title against Paul McCloskey (22-0, 12 KOs) on April 16. Khan is coming off of a grueling close victory against Marcos Maidana in December. He spoke about his most recent win, his upcoming fight, his future plans, and also provided opinions and insight on the current boxing landscape. Here is a complete transcript from that interview:
JENNA J: It’s time for our first guest on this week’s show. He’s the current WBA light welterweight champion of the world making his fourth appearance “On the Ropes”. We are joined once again by Amir Khan. How’s everything going today, Amir?
AMIR KHAN: It’s going really well. Training is going really good here. I’ve been in camp for a few weeks and I’m getting fit and strong and quickly. I’m enjoying training with my conditioner and also with Freddie Roach and I’m going to be ready for this next fight against McCloskey.
JENNA: Alright now let’s talk about your opponent McCloskey. He’s 22-0. What do you feel about his abilities?
KHAN: Well you know he’s the undefeated European Champion at the moment. I think the next step up for him was to fight for a World Title so I’m giving him that opportunity. You have to remember, you can’t take any fight lightly. This guy is hungry. He wants to become a world champion and he’s undefeated. He’s never tasted defeat. I want to be the first guy to beat him. With both of us I think it makes more having this fight in England because we’re both from Britain and people know who McCloskey is and I think it shows the way the tickets sold. In the first two hours they sold 9,000 tickets so there is a lot of demand in this fight and he’s been calling me out a long, long time. So I’ll take the fight and I’ll show who the best is in Britain.
JENNA: Now Amir you had a lot of trouble securing an opponent for this April 16 date. Why did it take so long to choose Paul mcCloskey as an opponent?
KHAN: Well you know there was Peterson that we were looking at first and there was at least three or four names that we were looking at, but it was very hard to get the fight on with those people. I left it with my team and everything and then the McCloskey name came up. He wanted the fight and I wanted the fight, and then I think it did take a little bit of time to get everything signed off. At the end we managed to get it all signed off and the fight’s happening now. It’s going to happen on the 16th of April. That’s just boxing for you. Sometimes the negotiations and the business part of it is quite tough.
JENNA: Okay, now you mentioned the business part of it. You had some changes in camp as you alluded to before. What was your reason behind removing Alex Ariza from the camp and getting a new strength and conditioning coach?
KHAN: I spoke to Freddie Roach and Freddie was happy for me to do that. There were a few things in the camp I wasn’t happy about. Now we work with a new guy called Michael Vale. I think Michael Vale will bring something else to the table. You know Alex is good at what he does, but there is always a time to change and we wanted something better. Like I said there was a few things in the camp that I don’t really want to go into, but I was not happy about it and it was quite difficult working together and everything. Now things are going smoother that I’m working with Michael.
JENNA: Some news recently came out that’s pretty interesting. It’s slated that you will possibly be facing Timothy Bradley on July 23 in a unification match. I’m curious with this fight already being set, are you at all worried that you might look past McCloskey with a potential Bradley fight on the horizon?
KHAN: Yeah, at the end of the day you could look past fighters and I don’t want to make that mistake. I want to be focusing on one guy which is McCloskey at the moment and beat him and hopefully then look further to bigger things. I think the fight that would be a big fight for me even sooner will be against Bradley. I think I can unify the division to become the #1 in the 140 pound division and then after that moving up to 147. I got the height and the body frame to move up to 147, but first of all I need to take care of business with McCloskey and then move to Bradley.
JENNA: Now before the McCloskey bout was announced, you had all sorts of people in boxing calling you out. People like Breidis Prescott were calling you for a rematch and you also had Kell Brook calling you out for a fight at welterweight. What do you think of both of those opponents being possibly in your future?
KHAN: In the future I think that could happen. I don’t think Prescott was one to call me out. I think that was just rumors someone made up. But with Kell Brook there is no point in me moving up to 147 pounds and beating him and becoming comfortable at 147. I want to clean up the 140 pound division first and then I can move up and beat the best, but I think that if I did box Kell Brook that would be a nice easy fight because styles make fights and that would be a walkover really. At the end of the day that’s boxing for you. You’re going to get loads of fighters calling you out and stuff and at this moment in time people want to face me because they know their names are going to get a lot bigger and that they’re going to get a lot of publicity out of it. So who knows if Kell Brook really called me out or if he was just doing it for the publicity thing? We don’t know yet.
JENNA: Alright Amir, well we’re also joined by my Co-Host Geoff.
GEOFFREY CIANI: Hi Amir. It’s a great pleasure to have you back on the show.
KHAN: Thanks Geoff.
CIANI: Amir I wanted to ask you, are you excited about fighting in the UK again after your last two fights were over here in the United States?
KHAN: Yeah it’s great to go back home and fight in front of your home crowd. You know I got loyal fans over there. I got fans who have been supporting me since I came back from the Olympic Games so it’s good for me to go back. I think it shows the demand of the way the tickets went, because 9,000 tickets in the first couple of hours is a lot of tickets and I think we’re maybe looking at filling the stadium with something like 20,000 people. So it’s going to be a big fight for me and it’s going to be a big homecoming fight.
CIANI: Now Amir, you’re on a six fight winning streak since your loss to Prescott and in the eyes of many fans, myself included, you’ve redeemed yourself since that loss. But there are still critics out there that have all of these questions about your chin regardless of your efforts against Maidana. What do you think of those criticisms?
KHAN: I think in the last fight I had proven that I took shots from the biggest and hardest hitting 140 pound fighter, and I think if he hit any 147 pound fighter the way he hit me I think he would have knocked them out. I think that’s just in the early days I used to kill myself making weight and I wasn’t professional making the weight and stuff, whereas now I’m more professional and I’m into doing things right. I’m not making the mistakes and I think it was a wakeup call. I think it was a blessing in disguise really. If that never happened I don’t think I’d be fighting now as a world champion and as one of the best fighters in the division.
CIANI: Now changing things up a little bit here Amir, your name has also been mentioned in the same sentence as Floyd Mayweather Junior as a possible future fight down the road. When we had Roger on the show we asked him about that fight, and he said he didn’t think you would “pose any threat” to his nephew and that he believed the fight would be a “mismatch”. How would you respond to those comments?
KHAN: Well at the moment I wouldn’t want to take that fight right now. I think I need another two or three fights. I want to get a little bit more experienced and then move up to 147. First of all I want to clean up the 140 pound division, and then move up. You have to remember, I’m not going to jump into the deep end too quickly. I want to fight someone like Floyd Mayweather when I know I’m ready and I know if I did fight him I would cause him a lot of problems because he never fought anyone with the speed and movement and foot movement like mine. I think I can cause him a lot of problems. I have a good jab, which Floyd always has problems with and the speed like I said is a key point I have. With Floyd he normally is the quickest fighter out there when he’s fighting the opponent, but if he’s fighting someone who’s quicker than him and who’s going to catch him in between his shots it’s going to be quite difficult for him to get flowing. That’s a fight in the future to look at. That’s what motivates me to work hard and win all of these fights, because I know there is a bigger picture at the end.
CIANI: Now Floyd’s last fight of course was against Sugar Shane Mosley, and Mayweather won a dominant fight against him. Now Mosley is fighting a stable mate of yours, Manny Pacquiao, and a lot of people are counting Shane out of this one. Do you think Shane has a chance in this fight against Pacquiao?
KHAN: Well you know I think if you look at it on paper you might think that he could have a chance, but if you look at how Shane’s last fight went it’s going to be a bit of a tough one for him because Manny is a very explosive fighter. He likes to work hard. He throws a lot of punches. He likes to stay busy. Will Shane Mosley stay with that pace? I don’t think he will with the age and the tough wars he’s had in his previous fights. But who knows? In boxing one punch could change a fight. I know Shane’s got the power to knock anyone out, so Manny has to be careful for the first couple of rounds because Shane is going to come out strong first just to catch Manny and put him on his back foot. Like I said, if he hits anyone clean he will knock him out but if it goes past five or six rounds I think the fight is on Manny’s side.
JENNA: Well Amir we have just a couple of more questions before we let you off the line. I’m wondering a little bit about a fight that’s taking place one week before yours. Marcos Maidana returns to the ring against the experienced “El Terrible”, Erik Morales. How do you see that one going down?
KHAN: I think Maidana is going to walk through Morales. Morales has had his good days. He’s come back now. I think he’s just a bit too old. I think he’s past the age. He’s not going to be the old Morales that we all know. I think Maidana is just going to walk through him. I could see Maidana knocking him out. With the power he has and the pressure he puts on fighters, maybe that fight will go probably just about six rounds.
JENNA: Would you be interested in a rematch with Marcos Maidana if he wins this bout and you win your next two? Would you still see him as a prospective opponent in the future?
KHAN: Oh definitely! I’ve proven to the world how good I am and I proved to the world that I could beat him. Before I fought him they were saying I was avoiding him, but I went there and I beat him. In the future if that fight ever comes up and it was a big fight for me and it made sense for me to have, then it’s a fight I would take. I’m not one to avoid fighters. You know I’ve never done that. If the fight makes sense then definitely I will take the fight.
JENNA: Alright now back to your opponent Paul McCloskey, what things in the ring do you think he does that could potentially bother you or give you trouble?
KHAN: I think he’s got a southpaw style which is quite awkward. I think it would give problems to most fighters out there and then there is the lateral movement that he likes to do. He’s not the quickest fighter out there. He’s kind of quick but I think it’s just his style really and he walks forward with a little bit of pressure that he puts on his opponent. We know how to beat this guy. If we stick to the game plan and we just fight smart then I think we can take him out in the middle rounds.
JENNA: Now what do you expect for your 2011? Where do you expect to end up by the end of the year?
KHAN: In 2011 I want to be the unified champion of the 140 pound division and hopefully then thinking of moving up to 147 and having probably my first fight near the end of the year. Like I said, I’m a big 140 fighter. I think going up to 147 will make me an even better fighter and stronger.
JENNA: For my final question, is there anything you want to say to your fans, Amir?
KHAN: I just wanted to say thanks for supporting me. If they want to follow me and see what I’m up to in my training camp, they can follow me on Twitter which is @AmirKingKhan. I always keep that updated and I love speaking to my fans and responding to their questions and everything. Hopefully I’d love to come back to America and fight over here one day again. First of all I got McCloskey to take care of. I’ll take care of him and then unify the division and I think the future is looking really good for us.
JENNA: Well Amir, it’s been an absolute pleasure speaking to you. We wish you all the best of luck on April 16.
KHAN: Thank you very much.
CIANI: Thank you Amir. Good luck.
KHAN: Geoff, thank you. Take care.
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For those interested in listening to the Amir Khan interview in its entirety, it begins approximately eighteen (17:55) minutes into the program.
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