British veteran Amir Khan managed to share the ring with Terence Crawford just before his career swan song, however, he came razor close to missing out on the bout altogether.
Snapping his two-year stay away from the ring following his hellacious knockout loss to Canelo Alvarez, Bolton veteran Amir Khan returned to his sparkling best in an outing in Liverpool.
And as part of a near-residency in the UK, Khan drew a relatively unknown Colombian opponent, who almost scuppered his chances of another US blockbuster.
Battling through, however, Khan can count himself lucky to have survived a quite sizable scare early in the clash.
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Amir Khan survived huge knockdown early against Samuel Vargas
Bringing an end to his two-year hiatus from the ring back in 2018, Khan first beat Phil Lo Greco in seconds in a return in Liverpool, finishing the Canadian contender with a 39-second technical knockout win — sending him to retirement, too.
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But on this day in 2018, Khan was pitted against Bogota native Samuel Vargas atop a card in Birmingham, counting himself lucky to emerge with a win.
And with question marks surrounding the Bolton veteran’s ability to take punishment, inside just two rounds, despite dropping Vargas himself, Khan did very little to reassure fans he could still hang with the best.
Sending the Colombian to the canvas inside the opening 20 seconds of the frame, Khan would find himself on the seat of his pants just moments later, courtesy of a huge overhand right.
Making it back to his feet, Khan prevailed and took home a hard-fought unanimous decision victory over Vargas, earning one final shot at welterweight gold proper.
Amir Khan’s title charge against Terence Crawford
A year on from his return to the ring, Olympic star Khan faced off with Terence Crawford at the absolute peak of the Nebraska star’s powers in a bid to capture WBO welterweight gold.
Travelling to the US once more, Khan made the trip to New York, taking on Crawford who had just finished Jose Benavidez Jr. in a rather comical knockout win.
Finding himself on the end of a rather controversial loss, however, Khan was hit with a body shot which he argued the legality of, as Crawford stormed home with a sixth round knockout win in ‘The Big Apple.’