Full transcript: Amir Khan on London Real
5:56 Brian Rose: This is London Real. I am Brian Rose. My guest today is Amir Khan, the two-time British world boxing champion known for your speed, accuracy, and ring IQ thrust into the international spotlight by winning silver in the 2004 Olympics. You went on to conquer America, unlike any British boxer in modern history. Outside the ring, your charity, the Amir Khan Foundation, that still spits an orphanage in Gambia. And you’re the owner and promoter of India’s Superboxing League and Super Fight League, which is an MMA organization. Your next big fight is rumored to be Samuel Vargas. Welcome to London Real.
6:27 Amir Khan: Wow, that was amazing. The way you… That introduction, I think you should be doing the fight introduction. Like buffer in the room. Everything about me. Wow, amazing. That is me. That’s what I’ve done in my career at the moment. Hopefully, I’ll do a little bit more things and I’ll do a few more things after I finish my boxing career. But yeah, that’s what I’m up to. I mean, hopefully, we announce who I’m going to fight tomorrow. Which is going to be in Birmingham. I’ll fight coming up in Birmingham, the fights at Birmingham as well at the arena.
7:02 Brian Rose: Okay, excellent. And you you you’re training in LA for this fight? For this fight yeah. I’m just curious like do you ever look around when you’re in LA and say what’s a kid from Bolton you know do an LA in LA and what’s a kid from Bolton being the one that kind of I say conquered America but you know not many British fighters can go and sell paper views in America like you have and really get the hearts and minds of Americans which let’s be honest I’m one of them they’re a little weird they’re different how did how did that all happen?
7:27 Amir Khan: Well, thank you. I mean, the thing is like, you know, I’ve got a lot of love in America and I think it comes from your personality, the way you come across. I come across as a nice guy. I respect boxing. I respect everyone. I’ve never said no to anyone for a picture or for an autograph. I give every media and online person an interview and be very respectful.
7:49 I’ve never really talked bad about opponents. I always respect all my opponents and I think that people in America kind of pick that up and think, oh, you know what? He’s not bad guy. Even people who probably didn’t like me, when they get to see me, meet me, they like me. So I’ve spent some good time in America, especially in my career. I spent about seven, eight years in America training. Well, it’s about ten years, to be honest with you, in America training there. So I train with Freddie Woch at the store, then I went on to train with Virgil Hunter, now I’m back, I was in San Francisco, now I’m back to LA again with Joe Wilson. So you know, a lot’s been going on in my career, my life with boxing, and I’ve been all over the place, but what I love about it is that I’ve had the opportunity to travel.
8:29 Honestly, that’s something I never thought I’d get a big name in America and I know there’s a lot of fighters, as you mentioned, in Britain. There’s a lot of fighters in Britain who are great champions, but they never go to America. They never fight in America. Now my aim was and my dream was to fight in America and to make a big name for myself in the States and you can’t do that by fighting in England. No disrespect. You can’t do it by fighting in England. You have to fly to American fight there. Now I was fighting in England and I was being showcased on like HBO and Showtime but I was still like a normal fighter so I just had to kind of go there, fly there, fight there so what my first fight I made a big I took a big risk because I took very little money.
9:12 Brian Rose: I think that’s why the Americans like you too. Excuse me. Yeah it’s because you take risks right you’ll go up two-way divisions you’ll fight people you know two years off a break that you shouldn’t be fighting for a warm-up fight.
9:25 Amir Khan: I mean, I think the Americans like that, I don’t think. They like that. You know, Americans like a guy who is, um, who likes to take risks. And I remember my first fight, like I mentioned, before I was against Pauli Molyneux, your former two-time world champion, and I was fighting him in New York in his home state as my first fight in the States, and he was coming off some good wins. Yeah.
9:46 Brian Rose: People like, for your first fight, you’re going straight in the deep end.
9:50 Amir Khan: I mean, that’s the type of fight I have, you know, and then my second or my third fight, Fatmoz was against Marcos Maidana, a guy who had a record of 13 knockouts, 31 wins, and they thought, this guy’s gonna walk right through Amir Khan, and obviously I won that fight as well.
10:05 Brian Rose: So, do you get nervous before those fights? Like, walking into Madison Square Garden, and it’s funny, because you take risks, but you’re not like the brash smack talker that we expect to go with you.
10:16 Amir Khan: We said nervous, but I mean, just before walking into the ring, I’m like thinking, why the hell did I pick this for? I asked God, why couldn’t you put me into an easier sport like football where I’ve got a team helping me? Or maybe some other sport. Why boxing now I’m gonna be walking in on my own into the ring and if I make one mistake I’m the one to blame. You know anything can happen.
10:36 Brian Rose: I mean you go to war basically. One little mistake you can get hurt badly. I mean you’re putting your life on the line. Not only your career, you’re putting your life on the line and it has to be the toughest sport in the world. And yet you love it for that reason as well.
10:48 Amir Khan: It’s adrenaline rush it gives me, I love it. And it’s all you when you win. Yep, it’s all, exactly. Oh, it’s all the hard work you’ve done. So when you win a fight, and just when your arm gets raised up, that’s the buzz that we want.
11:00 That’s the buzz that we always wanna feel. And it’s hard to explain, you know, because you need to be in that position when you’ve got thousands of people watching you, you’ve got millions of people around the world watching you fight live. And then when they said the winner is, I mean, I can’t, it’s the best feeling ever because all that training you’ve done for the fight, so you’ve kind of dedicated your life, being away from your family, being away from your friends, being away from all your comfort zones.
11:28 Brian Rose: You’ve locked yourself up in a training camp for 10 weeks. Do you get emotional release? I mean, I don’t remember seeing you cry or anything when that happens.
11:34 Amir Khan: I never cried to be honest with you. I don’t know if that’s a bad thing.
11:37 I can’t remember the last time I cried. But things are going through your head. It’s emotional moment when your hand gets raised. Not really. Not really.
11:45 It is to a certain extent where you don’t thank God, like, he’s very happy, but to the extent where it’s emotional, it’s never going to happen.
11:53 Brian Rose: What do you like on fight night? Because we’ve all seen the guy in the gym who can beat everybody in the sparring rounds, right? Who looks amazing, right? You know, pow, pow, pow on the pads, and it comes to game time, it comes to the night of the fight.
12:07 You walk out to the Madison Square Garden and everything goes wrong. It’s the champions where they step their game up at that standpoint. Is there, how do you do it?
12:16 Amir Khan: You know, I’ve been in the gyms with amazing fighters and you’re 100% right there because there’s a lot of people that don’t understand that. So the viewers who are gonna be watching this, I’ll answer the right way now.
12:29 So what happens is the gym fighters and there’s fighters. Now, I might not be the best in the gym, but I work very hard. I push myself. What gets me so far in my career, what’s gotten me so far is my work ethic. Now, there’s a lot of fighters out there who are amazing in the gym.
12:44 You look at them and think, how could, how possibly could this guy lose in a fight? They’ll go into the fight and I don’t know what it is. I think it must have been nerves. It must be- It’s self-doubt. Self-doubt.
12:55 I don’t know if it is that because, I mean, normally they’d be killing people, they’d be beating people up easily. They’d be knocking people out in their ring and I’m like, wow. But then when it gets, all it takes is when they step into that ring and they’ve got lights on them and they’ve got people watching them for some reason, they can never lift themselves up.
13:13 Brian Rose: They ever think it’s self-sabotage where they’re in the ring and they’re thinking if I win this my life’s gonna change and maybe subconsciously It makes them just do maybe does the opposite
13:22 Amir Khan: Yeah So so maybe they think about it’s too much that could be another thing hundred percent they think about it so much that it’s the work themselves Up and they get themselves nervous to get themselves really excited about it that they just never do it So it’s all about being calm It’s all about controlling the nerves if you know how to control the nerves in any any in any sport you can be the best and you can get far.
13:43 Brian Rose: Yeah. You mentioned Malinagi and you beat him in the States. Like you said, you had to go to the States. Americans want to see you fight in the States, right? So that started your time.
13:53 He was in the news last year because he was doing some training with Conor McGregor. I know you just bumped into him in Belfast. I’m curious because Conor’s one of those guys that takes risks like you and yet he’s kind of more brash outside the ring. What did you say to Conor when you saw him And what do you make of him?
14:11 Amir Khan: Okay, so what I make of him as a person, I think he’s a great fighter, what he’s done for MMA, especially the UFC, he’s taken to a different level.
14:19 Promoted it, now he’s had a bit of a fall in game with UFC. In my opinion, UFC, with what he’s done for them, they should give him a little bit of a stake of the company because he has promoted it and he probably will keep on promoting it. He’s a great fighter, I mean, he has huge notes, I mean, goes in with anyone for one of the best fighters in the world, which is Floyd Mayweather just recently. Did really well against him, obviously was, you know, was not a boxer, he’s an MMA fighter.
14:49 But still, I have to give him credit that he jumped in in front of thousands of people, knowing that he’s not really a boxer, but people ask me the question, was he doing it for the money? I don’t think so. I think he just wants to be great. I think in his mind, he wants to be a great fighter. He wants to be one of the best.
15:04 So that’s why he’s taking these risks these chances. I mean which man wants to embarrass himself, you know. I don’t see Conor McGregor being one of them guys to embarrass himself. So when I met him in Ireland just recently, I mean he came over and gave me a hug. Lovely guy. You know when you go up to someone, I mean he’s a superstar don’t get me wrong, and one of the biggest names is Sports. And when I walked over to him I said hey Conor how you doing, you’re keeping well. Then Then he walked away from his entourage and took me to a side and we had a little conversation talking about, you know, I remember seeing you in the Olympic Games, the corner comes from nothing.
15:43 I’ve watched old documentaries of him, where he’s come from nothing and made it into a superstar. Very rough, very street. Very, very rough and very street. I used to see the place where he used to live, you know, I mean, in a small little flat with his wife. So you have to respect the guy, you know, when he’s done it from the bottom and now took it to the top.
16:01 So I got a lot of respect for him there, and he’s kept himself humble. Now he knows the hard times, he’s beautiful, that he never wants to see that again. Now that’s motivation on his own as well, because, you know, we don’t want to be in that same position as we was in before. So that’s what pushes him, that’s what drives him. But he’s made a lot of money in the game, which he should.
16:18 You know, a guy like him who’s promoted himself and him promoted sports and other companies, I think he should be promoted.
16:24 Brian Rose: What do you see in the way he promotes himself that you like or dislike?
16:28 Amir Khan: I like it, you know what, there’s a lot of swearing in this, I wouldn’t let my little girls watch it.
16:33 Brian Rose: Okay, and you don’t do this stuff?
16:34 Amir Khan: I would never do it, you know, there’s personalities, we’re very different.
16:38 Brian Rose: Because you can’t be incongruent with your personality, and the fans will smell that a mile away.
16:42 Amir Khan: That’s right, exactly, and he is just like that, that’s the way he is. A lot of people like him because he’s real, he’s not playing at all. Right, so he’s really like that, and he’s also really humble in person. Humble in person, honestly.
16:52 Yeah. But he’ll still, like, you can still see it in him, like a spark, that he’s got that spark in him. But I think it’s the best to be yourself in any field. I mean, myself, I’ve always been me. People like you, I don’t like you, I’m that person.
17:07 But when people have met me, so people make things up in their minds, you know what I mean? It’s like this, I mean, it’s like that. I got a lot of success early in my career. I made a lot of money in the boxing at the early stage of my career.
17:18 Brian Rose: That’s nice to hear for a change.
17:19 Amir Khan: Yeah. And yeah, 100%, and a lot of people hate me for that.
17:22 Brian Rose: Because you manage your business well.
17:23 Amir Khan: I manage it right, and I’ve been smart about it.
17:26 Brian Rose: and your parents were helping you then too and you made smart decisions.
17:29 Amir Khan: Correct. So people have not liked me for that and they’ve kind of thought I’m flashy, I’ve had nice cars, I’ve caught speeding, done a lot of silly things, but I’ve learned from them mistakes when I was young and never made them mistakes again. You know, so I could go out there and buy anything I want, like a Bugatti, a Lamborghini, but I don’t wanna because I get people talking so bad about me by just driving a Range Rover that they say, imagine if I bought a super car, so I’d rather keep it humble.
17:55 I wanna live the humble life because one day all this is gonna disappear, I 100% agree. But I don’t want people saying, oh, look at him now. I wanna live, I just wanna maintain my life. I wanna be happy. And everything I do now is for my kids.
18:07 I just want them to live a good life. Not a spoiled life, a good life.
18:10 Brian Rose: Yeah, and it’s not about the money at the end of the day. When you see champions out there, they’re looking for something that only the sport of boxing or MMA can give them, which is the same reason you get nervous when you walk out to that rink, because everything’s on the line and everyone’s watching and you wanna be tested.
18:26 Amir Khan: I wanna be tested, I wanna see how far I can go.
18:28 Honestly, there’ll come fights where, you know, you wanna test yourself, and a lot of people say, oh, don’t take this fight. For example, the canal fight, I went up two categories, as you mentioned before. Now, a lot of people are saying, don’t take that fight, are you crazy? Now, I wasn’t doing it for the money, and I wasn’t doing it for anything that way. I was doing it for myself to become a superstar.
18:47 If I beat canal on that day, I would have been on a different level. I would have proven all the doubters wrong, and it would have been one of the biggest upsets in history books. So when history books have upsets that mine would have been on one of them, on that as well. But obviously I fell short. He caught me with a good clean shot.
19:07 I mean on points I was winning the fight. All I had to do was keep away. He’s a very good fighter. I gave him a lot more credit than people gave him there because I fought him and I know how good he is to time my speed which for the first couple of rounds we couldn’t do that. And he just caught me at the right time For a guy to time my speed and catch me as well, clean, the way he caught me, has to be a very good fighter because there’s not many fighters, and I’ve fought fast fighters, I’ve fought many fighters.
19:33 They can’t get the timing right because speed changes as the rounds go on. And obviously Canelo caught me with a good shot.
19:41 Brian Rose: How do you feel after a loss like that?
19:44 Amir Khan: Upset, down. You know, honestly, it comes to a stage where when I lost that fight against Canelo and then I had my hand operation, As you can see, I had some screws put in my hand.
19:56 Brian Rose: Still, huh? Yeah. Wow, you can still see it.
19:59 Amir Khan: I lost a lot of friends, honestly. I lost a lot of friends.
20:02 Brian Rose: What, fair weather friends?
20:04 Amir Khan: Friends who were always around me when the times were good. Friends who, I lost friends and a lot of people around me, like close ones, because they thought it’s probably done now. Let’s walk away. It’s finished now.
20:18 Brian Rose: And you can really see him just disappear.
20:20 Amir Khan: I’ve seen him all disappear blatantly as well. I mean, not like blatantly they are left.
20:24 Brian Rose: What’s that like? That’s got a body of you.
20:26 Brian Rose: To have a house full of people and then to have a empty room afterwards.
20:31 Amir Khan: And all you have a few people coming and being around you, shows you who the real people are, who are not the real people. And what kept me going on my fans are people who support me, who want my pictures with me, who want my autographs. And my wife also, my wife was very supportive. My wife was very supportive because she used to always say to me, look at me, these people still love you.
20:56 You need to come back for them. Everywhere you go, people ask you for pictures. Why do they do that? They do that because they like you. I go to Pakistan.
21:05 I’ve got such a big fan base that I make street stop. I make people go crazy. They mob me, and they want to take pictures of me. Honestly, I have made a full street, a main road stop because I was in the car. So when you see that in a way, it kept me going.
21:22 Otherwise, I think I would have probably called it a day and left because I was at such a low point on my career when everyone left me because I lost a fight. That I probably brought the best thing for me is to leave, stop boxing, but I didn’t do that. My fans kept me going. The love I get in England and in Pakistan And around the world, for my fans, kept me going and kept me just working because otherwise, if I didn’t have the fan base I have, I figure I would have definitely be gone.
21:57 Nowadays, with social media, that’s a big help. I mean, social media, it helps because it gets you out there to a wider region. More people around the world will see, on different corners of the world, will know what you’re up to, what you’re doing, send nice messages, you know, and they’ll follow you and you can follow them vice versa. So, people get to know what you’re doing and they’ll send them nice comments and obviously when I lost a fight against Canelo, again, so many positive messages are, I mean, look, you tried, too old, you’re still a champion in our eyes, and.
22:29 Brian Rose: And you read that stuff and that.
22:31 Amir Khan: And I read all my social media, yeah, I read it all, man, and no, no, no, this is the difference between myself and another fighter, and a good friend of mine is Nassim Hamad, Prince Nassim Hamad. Yeah, of course. Now, when he lost that fight, I exactly know what position he was in because I was in it myself, being lost by Canelo. And he lost that fight, and I could see that everyone vanished.
22:54 And he said it to me himself. And whoever could take what they can, they’d take. But then, with me, what helped me, because the same thing happened to me, but what helped me is social media. Having social media, having a good fan following, keeping them interested in them knowing what you wanna do, kept me in the picture and gave me confidence I’ve got love still, people wanna see me succeed. Whereas with Nasi Muhammad, them days they don’t have social media, so he had no one to give him that support.
23:21 You know, sometimes it’s good, but some people say nice messages to you because it lifts you up. He never had that.
23:26 Brian Rose: If not, would you get depressed? Would you get anxious?
23:29 Amir Khan: He probably gets you depressed, definitely.
23:31 Okay. He’s anxious, gets you depressed, because you think you’re on your own. And obviously we, those fighters, we think a little bit different. We are, we don’t think like normal people. We think we are, we always like to live on the edge.
23:44 We like to do crazy things and we do a lot of silly things as well at the same time.
23:48 Brian Rose: Yeah, what makes a fighter? Like what makes that guy? Because you said they do crazy things. Let’s talk about like, you know, we talked about McGregor recently.
23:55 You know, he threw a dolly through a bus window and you know, shattered glass over a bunch of fighters that are fighting the next day, right? Tyson in his day did all this crazy stuff, right? You’ve had some fun on social media in the past. Why do we expect fighters who are willing to go into the ring and die to somehow be these perfect gentlemen on the outside. Is that unreasonable?
24:15 Amir Khan: Those who are perfect gentlemen outside the ring are not real. I have to say because, like I said, you named a few fighters there. We have to be crazy to go into a ring and get punched in the head. Think about it.
24:31 Yeah, I mean, that’s why, I mean, look, I’ve done silly things in the past. It’s on social media. Not thinking because I like to live on that edge. I like to do things, so for me to walk into the ring and I’ll put my gloves on to win a fight and punch someone and get punched back, I mean you can’t be right in the head to do that, you know, and obviously that’s become a job of mine, I love it, I love doing that as well, I love doing it, I rather take a punch to the face than an injection, you So I kind of enjoy being in the like I do know I’m not being in the ring for it’s been about eight weeks I can’t wait to put the gloves on and get a little smacked on to the head a punch in the face Then injection as in you like the adrenaline you get when someone tags you this one time with me I’m like yes time to work time to wake up time to wake up and time to work when and and I just love that buzz It’s just a buzz. So we are not right in the head. We like the wrong things. I give us a buzz I mean the people get a buzz off of probably watching a movie or going out, or going out with a girlfriend or kissing a girl.
25:42 But it’s different. It’s like getting punched in the face or pinching someone.
25:46 Brian Rose: Someone once told me that a lot of people think that to be a fighter, you get to dish out punishment. But really being a fighter is about taking it. Taking the punishment, well not only in the ring, in the training, with the fan base.
25:56 Brian Rose: I mean, is that really what it is? You absorb more punishment than the next guy. And I guess you dish it out as well.
26:04 Amir Khan: Yeah, so both ways, you know, we take a lot of punishment from like social media, from people, from fans. Yeah.
26:11 From the media, from your opponent who you’re facing, from sporting partners, but same time we give it as well. And the person we give it to is your opponent. That’s why the poor guy gets a good beating after the fight, you know what I mean, after the fight, Jay Kans, but it’s business. And-
26:26 Brian Rose: It was business with Greco, man. When you went back to him the second time after he knocked him down first, I mean, there’s a look in your eyes there.
26:34 Amir Khan: Yeah, you know, I’ve been do boxing for a long time now, since I was eight. It’s a very long time I’ve been fighting for. When I saw him get back up, I knew he was finished. I mean, I’ve knocked guys down before and I know they’re not finished and I will then go back into the game and he’s into it. But I knew that he was gone.
26:52 You could see the signs, the balance, the eyes. I’ve been doing it a long time and I thought, you know what, he’s got up too fast. That’s one thing, too secondly.
27:00 Brian Rose: Because you’ve done that before.
27:02 Amir Khan: Yeah, yeah, his feet was all over the place and I’ve been knocked down myself and I know what it’s like, right?
27:07 Yeah, so I put myself in You know, I’ll put myself in issues of thinking. Okay, if that was me, I’ll be hurt So there’s no point giving him a chance now. I don’t get paid for overtime
27:17 Brian Rose: How did that feel like to coming out two years? I mean ring rust is what they call it in the UFC is real You know, you stepped up on that opponent and then it’s out. It’s dumb, you know within a minute. Yeah, how’s that feel?
27:29 Amir Khan: Felt good you don’t normally get crowds complaining when a fight finishes so early but this time the crowd were like so happy and they were so happy that I won the fight and I won it in good fashion and look really good in it but I won it in 39 seconds and Eddie here in my promoter couldn’t believe it either he was like normally this would happen you’d be getting things falling in the ring and people saying stuff but everyone was so happy about it I think it was just good to see me back people want to see me back and they’re never expecting me to come back the way I left and I came back probably better to be honest with you because all that time I was out of the ring I spent my time in the gym working, going through things, getting better with a fighter, working on my mistakes and I came back strong.
28:14 Brian Rose: You work hard.
28:15 Amir Khan: I work hard all the time man it’s what’s got me far. Look I might not be the most talented fighter but I know one thing I work harder than my opponent and I work harder than any fighter
28:25 Brian Rose: take me back to eight years old starting boxing and then up to where the Olympics you once said that that you actually prefer those days when things were simpler they were nice nice things you don’t like explain that
28:37 Amir Khan: you know they’re nice in a way well well they were nice and some of these days are better as well well well there was nice about them he’s like you simple boy you had no pressure I did have no pressure on me people didn’t tell me people didn’t
28:51 Expect me to win or so I never had that pressure on me and going into a fire going to training camp or being somewhere and being pulled left right center and like I sleep on time I sleep on time as I wake up on time I used to wake up with a fresh mind now I’m so busy with everything with all the business side with with my you know with my boxing it gets it comes I guess too much for them days were really chilled and calm but what what’s what’s better now being being in this position is financially I’m very secure and obviously I was young then so I didn’t really feel what’s it like not having money or what’s it like having a little bit of money I was only getting pocket money a couple of pound pound credit here and there from my family everything I wanted my grandparents got me so I’m quite lucky there but I didn’t have a spoiled life I never had a life, poor life, I had a medium class life, but I had to earn my things and I was getting presents when I deserved the presents, like for example on a birthday or like if it was Christmas or something.
30:00 I get money when it’s like Eid or something like that or if I want to fight or something. So you know them days it was a little different, you have to earn it or you have to be for a special occasion. But now, I’m in a very lucky position where if I want to buy something, I can go into any shop and buy what I want. If I want to eat wherever I want to eat, I can go and do that. Like, I don’t think about am I allowed to do this, am I allowed to do that.
30:29 But at the same time, I’m not one of them silly guys who, I know I can do that, and I know I can do that, but I’d rather think, well, I don’t need to do that today. I need to go have a five-star dinner when I’m only going to have a little nibble. I’d rather go here instead. You know, I’m very careful as well because the money I make is blood money. Now, blood money, you know, you don’t want to fight away and you don’t want to spend on silly things.
30:52 You know, when you give something, if you… Now, my friends…
30:56 Brian Rose: What do you mean blood money?
30:57 Amir Khan: Blood money, so my friends said to me, blood money meaning like, I work hard for it. I take, I get beats for my money.
31:04 I work hard, day in, day out. It’s sweat money. I sweat for it, I bleed for it. I get pushed in the face for it, you know, I sacrifice my life for it. I leave my family to go training camp for it.
31:16 So that’s why I call it blood money. That’s blood money. Whereas, you know, I get my friends saying to me that, oh, you know, you’re not bad, you’re not really a big spender, I’m here. Like, I could have a lineup for Lamborghinis, Ferrari, Porsches, all the nice cars I want, but I don’t have a nice simple Range Rover. And they’ll say to me, I mean, why do you get another car?
31:34 I go, look, I can only drive one car at a time. And I always travel anyway, so I’ll pack it up so my friends can drive it around, and they’re like, yeah, leave it for us. But then I’m like, well, you know how hard I work for that money. So if I had to buy a 200 grand car, you know how hard I work. Like, I go through a lot of pain while you guys are chilling out, while you guys are sleeping, I’m running the streets.
31:56 While you guys are eating fried food and your nice meals, I’m on a diet. You know, so I go, it’s very hard for me to just spend money on things I don’t eat. Now I’ve seen examples for like from Mike Tyson, who is one of my heroes and he’s a friend of mine now. And he says the same thing that when he was making money, he had everyone around him. And as soon as he spent it all, he’d be what, he told me a story that he’d go out to a Bentley showroom and buy like 10 cars for him and his friends, leave them on the streets after, after they drive him around for a couple of days and leave him on the streets and get another couple of cars.
32:37 Now that’s what he called big.
32:39 Brian Rose: Yeah, I mean what do you see about Mike’s career that you want to do and not do and I and his post fight career Do you see you want to do and not do
32:47 Amir Khan: so what I like about his career is I you know He he respected a few people and I liked that but him he’s a very kind person But people always took him took the wrong way I took the wrong thing said the wrong things about him and took him out took him the wrong way I mean and saw him the wrong way that he’s a very nice guy You know if you sit down with Mike Tyson have a chat with him I think you should one day invite him here, and he is probably the one the nicest guys you meet I think the people have only made him the way he was You know sometimes your team around you can make you good or bad And I think they made him They put that in his mind that he’s You know he he’s a fighter. He needs to hurt people. He needs to be the bad guy He can’t be a good guy. He needs to be the bad guy and Like now, I meet him and I try to think back a lot.
33:35 That’s the same Mike Tyson that used to be the bad guy. But guess what? He’s the nicest guy you’ll ever meet.
33:43 Brian Rose: Did he quit too late in his career?
33:46 Amir Khan: Yeah.
33:46 He used to be a student of boxing. Like he loved that sport. He used to watch the tapes.
33:52 Brian Rose: The youngest ever world champion in 19. Come on, man.
33:55 Amir Khan: I mean, look at those old tapes, you know, with him. How quick he was, moving sides, speed and the power. Someone at his size, a heavyweight for him, punches like a lightweight. I mean, you’re like, wow, how can someone do that? And they’re not only throwing the speed, but throwing the power with it.
34:09 In history, I think he is probably the best fighter in history of the heavyweight division if he was, when he was like 21, 22. It’s just that when the distractions happen in his life, that’s that turning point. And custom out of dying didn’t help. Yeah. And don’t have that mentor there a taste and he probably had seven fights too many.
34:32 Brian Rose: But how do you ever tell a fighter when to stop? You’ve said boxing’s your life. When you’re not boxing.
34:37 Amir Khan: I said I was gonna retire at 28. I’m 30, you weren’t already.
34:40 So you know what, you’re right there. I mean, I used to be the one to say, I don’t know when to call it a day, but look, to be honest with you, I will know when to call it a day, look. I work hard, I train hard. And I just love to smoke. It keeps me calm, keeps me focused, keeps me away from all the distractions.
34:57 When I’m in training camp, I’m enjoying it and I’m just loving being there and being in that position to see my body get back fit again, get that six pack, and I can still do it. So why not keep doing it? And I know I’ve still got the speed, I’ve still got the use behind me. Now, what motivates me is when you see these older fighters, like for example, Floyd Mayweather, 40 years old, Manny Pacquiao, 37 years old or 38. So you’ve got Bernard Hopkins.
35:21 These guys are still doing well and they’re like in their 40s and 50s and late 30s. So if they can do it now, I’m only 31, so I think I’m still at my peak where maybe two, three more years, I think I’ve still got left in me, but the day I do see myself declining or finding it hard in a fight or doing, not doing that well in a fight, I’ll call it a day.
35:42 Brian Rose: I’m gonna play that back for you maybe one day.
35:45 Amir Khan: I will be the, I’ll be the one to walk away, trust me. Like, I’m my own biggest critic, so when I do things wrong in a fight, I criticize myself.
35:54 I see mistakes I make. Now all the criticism I get around the world, people are saying that I’m here to have a chain, you can’t take a punch. I ignore that, I’m my biggest critic. I mean, I’ve been hit by shots that would have probably knocked out anyone. That’s why I went down, fine.
36:12 I mean, what were the guys I’ve knocked out myself? What were the big shots I’ve taken from the likes of Maidana, Zabjuda, you know? So we can get into an argument with people but I think I choose not to. I just keep on doing my thing, keep on winning. still topping bills, wherever I go.
36:27 I still sell at arenas. So it’s just great to be in that position, but sometimes it can get to you a little bit or even people just start going on and on. I’ve just learned to kind of ignore it, but what do you do? That’s why boxing is the toughest sport in the world. I keep saying that to everyone because you don’t only have to deal with the training, you don’t only have to deal with fighting, you have to deal with all the rubbish away and outside the ring which you’ll start getting so as soon as I finish like you think it’s easy you think after a fight I’m gonna go home he’s gonna put his feet up he’s gonna wake up in the morning have a cup of tea and chill and go on his phone and text his friends it’s not like man you see your phone in the morning you think oh yeah you won that fight you okay you look good in that fight but you know what your shit okay you won that fight and you’re gonna get knocked out in the next fight all your shit you still shit and you you’re never gonna win the world title so you know you always get bad comments I don’t know I I don’t know why, I don’t know how someone can sit there on their phone and write something bad because I couldn’t do that.
37:27 I mean, it’s like, that person must be so evil and so bad in themselves to write a nasty comment to someone. Like, what didn’t get out of it? Why just, why wanna upset someone? I don’t get what people want. Yeah.
37:41 I mean, there’s other ways of pointing it. If you’re a shit fighter, you say, I don’t think you’re a good fighter and I think you should pack it in. Instead of saying, you’re a shit fighter, and knocked out and I don’t think you’re ever going to win a world title, like, oh no, okay, thank you.
37:56 Brian Rose: Yeah, but it’s that same media that also helps you sometimes, too, when you’re down. But then again, it’s the same media, there’s two ways about it.
38:03 Brian Rose: Tell me about the politics and the business, because that’s something you have to deal with as well. And I remember I had Derek Chisora in here and I said, what about promoters? And he said, he said, a bunch of vultures is what he said.
38:17 Amir Khan: No, man, I mean, look, you know, I’ve never had a problem with any promoter. why that is. Look, you get a lawyer, you should get a lawyer and this is some good advice I can send to young professionals that are coming up. Everything a promoter is telling you and what you’re asking for and what you guys are agreeing to has to be in a contract.
38:38 Everything needs to be in black and white and signed by you and your promoter. That’s it. I mean, how can you then ask your promoter to give me a contract, give you a contract, You don’t even get it looked at over from a solicitor, from a lawyer, and you just sign it black and not reading it and you give it back. That might say you’re gonna fight once in 10 years. I mean, you have to read it.
39:03 You have to put your terms in the contract as well. So all the people watching this, all the young kids, put your terms, what you want.
39:10 Brian Rose: So to me, maybe it means that Derek Chazora at the time was happy with those terms and he signed it. But maybe later on he thought, wait a minute, I wanna change them terms and I wanna do this and do that. It’s too late, you’ve already signed it.
39:23 So take some ownership, take some responsibility.
39:26 Amir Khan: Take some responsibility, man. Okay. Yeah, and you have to do that. Look, this is nice that we’re talking about this because there’s a lot of fighters out there who kind of have a lot of disagreements with their promoters and their managers.
39:40 Have it all in writing, do contracts with people. Look, that is a deal between you and your promoter. Do a contract deal with them so that way nothing can ever go wrong. And the day something goes wrong, look, he says this one there, and you have to fulfill it.
39:54 Brian Rose: Who taught you this stuff, and who taught you these values as well, right?
39:58 Brian Rose: You must have some good parents, some good family.
40:01 Amir Khan: You know what, you learn it yourself. I was younger, I was 17 when I started, and my dad was always involved in things in my boxing business, and he always had me around. So in meetings, I’ll sit there, in meetings, and I’ll pick things up. And then he put two and two together or anything, And when I started doing a little bit of business myself, like I own the boxing leagues and the MMA leagues.
40:21 Yeah.
40:21 Brian Rose: Like you have to sometimes be a shrewd businessman.
40:24 Amir Khan: Now that’s something I’m not though. I know all this about business. I know all this about contracts, but I’m not the shrewd businessman that you think.
40:32 You’re working on the shirtless. People always walk over me and it always happens. So I like to have someone next to me who I can train up to be like this and let them do all the, be the bad person. Because I’m always the yes man. which I can’t say no to people, I always say yeah okay okay and it gets me in trouble all the time you know I mean for example for one of the fights I want to say yes to about like 100 people for tickets and guess what they turned up for them tickets and I was like yeah can I have no problem, I just promised you yeah there you go oh can I bring plus one yeah okay take another one then so I never gave like almost 200 tickets away so I mean and that’s a lot of money and that comes out my purse but I just had to do it because I just can’t say no to to people and these people I kind of met maybe once or twice on or maybe did something nice or maybe just give me a nice smile I’m like oh I’ll just take it
41:26 Brian Rose: and what’s it like working with Eddie Hearn and was that a difficult decision to make?
41:30 Amir Khan: It was at the time yeah. Why? Well we, me and Eddie have always been back and forth in negotiation well not negotiation so me and Eddie are we’ve been back and forth like he said one thing about me I’ve said something about him and then And we never used to agree on things, and I used to think he’s a bit of an arse, really.
41:49 So I used to go to all the shows I used to do because I’m a boxing fan as well as a fighter. But he used to be there, I’d never like to go there and see him, I used to sit well away, wingside, sit there and support him. But then, it came a stage where I gave it a good thought and I was in the jungle, I’m a celebrity and I thought, where do I want to be in my career? lost a fight, I’ve had the hand operation and just put myself back in boxing again. I want to be back in boxing. I don’t need it financially, I just want to do it because I love the sport and I know I’ve got a lot left in me. So I managed to do a deal with Eddie Hearn because he has the biggest TV station under him. He’s got the promotional company, he’s got the contacts to get me the biggest fights I want and he can make me a lot of money and also they can make me a world champion again.
42:40 And he’s respected in the boxing business. So was his father Barry, Barry Hahn. So I decided to come out and say to him, my dad looked at, let’s do a deal with Eddie. He went, spoke to Eddie for me, done the deal, and boom, there he was, man. I mean, no one had expected me and Eddie ever to work together because we had so much drama between each other.
43:00 But it was business, not personal, and sometimes people use personal beefs to keep them from being where they wanna be with business. So with me, you know, this is a business, and with me is people want to see me in the biggest fights. My fans want to see me in the biggest fights. Now, if I’ve got beef with Eddie Hearn, if I’ve got beef with something like Cal Brook, then those fights are never going to happen. But sometimes you have to look at it on a different way, on a business view, you know what I mean?
43:26 Like, look, if he’s going to make me the most money, if he’s going to get me the fights I want, I’m going to be with him. If I have to get with Eddie Hearn to get the fight with Cal Brook, then I’m gonna make that happen because that’s what the fans want and that’s what everyone wants. So sometimes you have to put your egos to a side.
43:42 Brian Rose: Yeah, and you read your contracts.
43:44 Amir Khan: And you read your contracts.
43:45 Brian Rose: I want to leave with the contracts, man. Everyone should read their contracts and don’t put your hand up and say I’m not a businessman, I’m not a lawyer. I don’t know why they’re complaining about something he signed. I don’t know. We’ll call him up.
43:55 No, it’s not a question. Why are you complaining for a signed date? He usually throws desks at people, so. Yeah, I don’t know what to say that time if you might go for a desktop meeting.
44:04 Brian Rose: Mayweather you know and the politics of promotions you know I know that that fight was kind of on again off again years ago I’m sure you’re tired of talking about it but I’m also curious what you think of him you know as a as a promoter and do you think it’s just about the money for him and do you think he’ll fight again
44:20 Amir Khan: I can’t see him fighting again no I don’t think he’ll ever fight again and as a promoter he’s doing a great job he’s got some young fighters on his caught on his on his resume
44:29 Brian Rose: he didn’t want you to fight you Your style did not match with him and people are gonna say like people were gonna watch this and said are you two?
44:36 I just don’t know shit about boxing.
44:38 Amir Khan: You don’t know but look styles make fights in boxing No, I might have a I might have an easy night against one like Madonna But then Mayweather might have a hard night with Madonna because obviously styles make fights now with my style for Mayweather It was a wrong style because it’s got speed movement explosiveness That’s what good causes me with a lot of problem. Look at the fights against like like Shukeshin Mohs the early stage in the fights he was getting caught. For example Austin La Jolla, I mean Manny Pacquier early in the fight. Now Styles make fights and I think me, and the reason Manny Pacquier got beat, yeah, Manny had speed, but Manny was smaller than Mayweather, so he had to go up for them shots where Mayweather was just catching from the top and moving. With me, I’m the guy who’s over Mayweather, I’m bigger than Mayweather and I’m probably stronger than Mayweather so and I’m taller than him so I wouldn’t be fighting him down so I’ve got the reach advantage and the size advantage against him and the speed advantage and the power advantage but what Mayweather has got is a great defense and he’s got the great movement so you know in a way it was gonna be a good it would have been a good fight regardless
45:48 Brian Rose: but would you beat him
45:49 Amir Khan: I honestly think yeah and now yes even more so even more so now because I think as I’ve got older but wiser and and Mayweather’s been at the
45:57 Ring now and he’s getting older you have to remember his timing as well I’m just turned 31 he’s turned just 40 right so it’s all about timing as well he’s gonna catch up to you one day we thought he was gonna catch up to him against McGregor but one thing I remember when he fought McGregor was that he was getting caught with a lot of shots a lot more than normal normally Mayweather never gets caught with shots but he was getting caught with a few he was getting tagged a few times. But imagine he was fighting a proper boxer with speed. But look, I’m not saying that anything could have happened in that fight. It could have beaten me. Look, maybe my style was just right for him. And his style was wrong for me. So boxing is hard to say, but you have to always be confident. That doesn’t mean that you’re big head, you’re cocky.
46:39 That means that I’m just believing in myself. But maybe there is a great fight and I can’t take that away from him. I met him and he’s a wonderful guy. He’s down to earth. Another down to a guy as well who respects fighters because they fight and he knows what they go through. And at the same time he has to be confident. Now he might come across really arrogant at times, that’s because he has to sell a fight. They can’t be too nice guys.
47:04 One has to be bad. He chooses to be the bad guy just to sell the fight. It’s a business.
47:09 Brian Rose: And what about him? Is it about the money for him? Floyd Money Mayweather.
47:13 Amir Khan: Yeah, 100% his name says it all.
47:15 Brian Rose: Come on, you said that’s not why people fight.
47:17 Amir Khan: Yeah, I mean, I mean, he loves the sport, but he loves the money with it as well. But that’s his motivation. My motivation is to win fights and please my fans.
47:26 His motivation is to win fights and make millions and millions of money, you know, dollars. So, I mean, that’s really different. But yeah, I mean, why not? If he can make it, why not? I mean, look, at the end of the day, he’s made that much money.
47:39 I think he’s almost a billionaire in boxing. So what he’s made, we can’t hate. I mean, look, he is a businessman, and hopefully he can spend and buy whatever he wants. He can live that crazy lifestyle that he wants to live. And for him to do that, he has to make a lot of money and keep on fighting and sell the fights well just to make that money.
48:00 And he does a great job, I think, about it.
48:03 Brian Rose: What’s it like being a Pakistani kid from the north of England who now represents England as a boxer? Did you feel things growing up? Was it hard? Was there racism?
48:13 And then did it disappear at some point when you became kind of England’s champ, or is it always there?
48:19 Amir Khan: No, well, to be honest with you, I’ve never really tasted or had any racism thrown at me. No one’s ever been racist and no one’s ever been disrespectful. I’ve always had that respect in Britain. I’ve always been seen as a British fighter.
48:32 And me being a Muslim, me being a Pakistani has never really mattered. Now, whenever there’s racial attacks that happen, I always go out there and I always see myself British. I’m British first and I tell the world that and I’m not afraid to say that to anyone. And whenever these terrorist attacks happen, I’m the first one to stand up and say, look, and there’s a Muslim involved in it. I’ll stand up and say, look guys, this is wrong.
48:59 Just so other Muslims don’t think it’s right to do that or maybe even have a slight sentence in their mind that they wanna do something like this, like jihad and all that. against it. It’s in Islam, in the holy book that we follow, the Quran, it says in there we are not allowed to harm or hurt anyone. Now the only time you can fight is for your religion in a time when you need to help and protect the religion or your people. With what’s going on around the world now, I think people have taken it out of context. They are blowing things up, blowing places up and and hurting innocent people who have done nothing wrong to them and I think you know you can’t call them Muslim I don’t call them people Muslims they they they should not be doing that and they’re not following the rules they’re not following the Quran so in a way they’re doing wrong now for example when the when the attack happened in Manchester Arena yeah yeah yeah that’s close to you I was a young kid yeah did that when we’ve been in traffic in at the time. And I was gonna tell my little girl there. Now I’m an innocent person. My little girl’s an innocent person. I could have been there, we could have got killed, a bomb went off. Now why does that person do that? Being a Muslim he probably was brainwashed. Someone’s telling him, so kids out there, it’s not in the Quran to kill anyone. It doesn’t say that in the Quran. It’s against our religion or any religion to kill yourself in a way like this. So people need to rethink.
50:42 People in school, they need to be educated a little bit more. They need to be taught about their religion, what is right and what is wrong. Because what’s happening is these people are killing themselves and giving themselves the wrong bad name. Now with those killings of those innocent people who are dealing with it, because also Muslims are going to deal with it.
51:04 Brian Rose: Do you get heat from that, from the community, for making that stand, you know?
51:09 Amir Khan: From the community, no. No, they’re with you on that. I’d love to even, if someone ever said I was doing wrong by saying that, I’d stand up and put them straight, and if I had to tell them how it is, I would tell them, to that face. I mean, I’m not afraid of telling them. It’s just that, look, people take it the wrong way, take the wrong context, and then no one’s ever said that I’ve said wrong.
51:35 Why should, I mean, look, all I say is I’m totally against terrorism, killing innocent people is wrong, and things like this should never happen. And I want young kids to follow my footsteps, doing positive things representing the country. We live in Britain, we’re British.
