Amir Khan’s trainer Virgil Hunter takes some time to talk to FightHype about his fighter’s return to boxing and what such a long time out of thing ring could mean for Khan. Check it out...
Hunter on Amir Khan’s opponent Phil Lo Greco:
“Lo Greco’s fought some good people. I wouldn’t classify him as an opponent. I would, you know, classify him as a tough opponent. Certainly not an easy out. Amir Khan has a lot to prove, being out that length of time.
“[Khan’s] 31 years old now, still young, but, you know, I have no idea what he’s been doing the last two-and-a-half years. So I won’t even have an assessment of where he is until he gets here. So, again, I’ll just take that situation one day at a time.”
On what’s his biggest concern for Khan, returning after such a long layoff:
“Well, you know, he’s coming off a knockout [loss]. I think as far as...he didn’t suffer a concussion in the knockout. But, you know, you have to prepare yourself that that’s probably still in the back of his head. So I think the best way for me is just assessing through camp to get an accurate reading on him. You would hope that he took care of himself during that time [off], didn’t gain a lot of weight. He is coming with plenty of time to prepare but, yeah, he’ll find out that he has ring rust. It’s impossible not to.
On if Khan’s long hiatus could be a good thing for someone who’s been doing this their whole life:
“I’ve always been honest with Amir, and very much to the point of being in the game long enough, and loving the game long enough, and studying the game long enough to where his IQ is up to par and has developed to the point — you don’t lose that. You see? So that would be my concern, mentally, where he is.
“Physically, who knows? And again, the only way I can honestly really, really get a reading on him is just to watch him day in and day out and I’ma make sure he has tough sparring. You know, very tough sparring. He’s going to be challenged in sparring so that’ll give me a good idea of where his stamina is, what he’s been doing. Of course I’ll sit down and talk to him and ask him has he [had] any vices that he might wanna discuss that could slow up his conditioning.
“But until he gets here it’s hard to say. Him living so far away I don’t get any accurate assessment of, you know, what he’s doing, where he’s at. If he lived here you would assume he’d be dropping through the gym and working out some.”