Amir Khan would fight McGregor, under MMA rules
Amir Khan wants to fight McGregor in the UFC
At 17, Amir ‘King’ Khan won a silver medal in the 2004 Athens Olympics, making him the youngest British Olympic boxing medalist ever. At 22 he became the WBA light-welterweight champion. Now 29, he is a two-time former world champion, and has fought professionally at three weight classes.
He runs an enormous gym in his ancestral home, Pakistan, which serves as the headquarters for MMA’s Super Fight League, which he partly owns.
‘King’ is also game to not just box in the ring and promote in the cage, but actually fight in the cage. And he wants to fight Conor McGregor. Under MMA rules. In the UFC.
The greatest boxer of his generation, Floyd Mayweather Jr, has been lobbying for a fight with McGregor, under boxing rules, but Amir is not impressed.
“I don’t think Mayweather would want to fight under MMA rules,” said Khan to Chamatkar Sandhu for FloCombat. “I look at it more as a publicity stunt. People were talking about it. It worked while it lasted, and they brought the hype up.”
“I’m a little different in that sense, where I would get into a cage and I would fight in MMA rules, so that’s the difference between me and Mayweather. I would definitely give it a go. It’s something to learn, as well. I’m at that age where I’m still learning, adapting and getting better. So I still have time under me as well. I’m still a young lad and got loads left in me.”
“It just depends on the weight category. But look, as a fighter, that’s a fight I would take. McGregor is a massive name in MMA, and I’m a big name in boxing, so globally, I think it would be a massive fight. Sometimes, you have to put friendship aside and you have to take it in the cage or in the ring. But yeah, if that fight comes up to me, I’m not one to back away from it.”
“It just shows how big this sport is getting. It’s going to hit crazy numbers and sometimes it surpasses boxing. These are fights people want to see. If it was boxing, you might not see a rematch. With MMA, it seems quite easy to make fights that the fans want to see. I was chasing Mayweather for two years, and the fight never happened. The fans wanted to see it, but he didn’t want it. So that’s the difference between MMA and boxing.”
“Something like that would be massive. Even if I started to train MMA next year, I’d only be 30 years old. I could stop and train for a full year and become a good MMA fighter. It’s in our blood to fight. I’ve been fighting all my life, so for me, I don’t think it’d be a problem for me to learn and switch over to the sport.”
“I think McGregor has some great boxing skills. A good boxer will always win a MMA fight–I’ve always said that. A good puncher will always win. You saw in the Aldo fight–he took a step back and countered him as he came in. With boxing, it’s all about distance and timing, and that’s something we have on our side more than MMA fighters.”