Virgil Hunter accuses Amir Khan for not training and allowing his skills to deteriorate
Former world champion Amir Khan (33-5) aims for an impressive victory over Neeraj Goyat (11-3-2) in his next fight to return him to boxing's elite in order to challenge WBC welterweight champion Shawn Porter (30-2-1) next.
Bolton's Khan, who during a 38-fight career has shared the ring with a constellation of stars, namely Canelo Alvarez, Danny Garcia, Zab Judah and Marco Antonio Barrera, will face the former Asian WBC welterweight champion Goyat in a 12-round welterweight showdown at Rey Abdullah Sports city in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on June 24, where there will also be a special trophy presented by the WBC for the winner of the bout.
The former unified world super-lightweight champion is reportedly receiving a £7million fee to face the former Indian kickboxer.
Full of surprises, 'King' Khan announced at this week's press conference in the UK that he is now training under Florida’s former WBA super-bantamweight champion Clarence "Bones" Adams. The 32-year-old has also teamed back up with Alex Ariza, who famously guided him when he was trained by Freddie Roach.
After a two-bout spell under Joe Goossen, Khan reunited with the esteemed Virgil Hunter for his last contest, but lost his WBO welterweight challenge in bizarre fashion to current ruler Terence Crawford after he was hit with a low blow.
The 2011 BWAA Trainer of the Year, Hunter, later criticised Khan for not spending enough time in his California gym between fight camps, stating that he doesn't train anywehre near enough.
Hunter said, "I would like to see him commit to many training camps in between fights and to work on his weaknesses before he makes that final decision to really see if his skills are gone, or if he is just letting them lay in a pile and deteriorate slowly.
"He never has practice in between fights. He trains hard for 10 weeks but it's not enough.
"There's little things that he does that cause him to be out of sync.
"His timing is off. His distance is not where it should be. He doesn't have a sense of range and distance and those things are not due to age. That's from practice.
At the pre-fight press conference for his next fight, which is more of an exhibition bout than a serious fight, Khan stated, “With a British Pakistani and an Indian fighter, this fight has even more flavour and makes it even bigger, especially in that part of the world.
“I always train hard for a fight, I’m always focused and I always give everything, as I know full well that fights like this could lead to bigger things.
“The welterweight division is currently one of the most difficult divisions in the world, with some great names and I want to return to that elite once again.”
Goyat turned pro in 2011 and has won 11 of his 16 bouts. Khan, however, sees the defeat of Anthony Joshua by John Ruiz Jr. as an inspirational story of how everything in the ring is possible.
“I never think about losing, but a defeat would definitely destroy me and make my opponent a great name,” he concluded.