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Amir Khan’s September 8 fight with Samuel Vargas will be at the welterweight limit of 147 pounds, marking Khan’s first fight at that weight since May 2015, when he beat Chris Algieri.
In his last two outings, Khan has fought at catchweights of 155 and 150 against Canelo Alvarez and Phil Lo Greco, respectively. But the Canelo fight proved that Khan is probably no junior middleweight, and the Lo Greco bout was a tune-up after nearly two years off.
Khan (32-4, 20 KO) says 147 is where he’s getting serious again:
“I want to fight at 147 because I am a welterweight fighter, and I’ve made that clear. 147 is the weight I fight at, and I also want to get high in the world rankings, because the world rankings at the moment are confused what weight I am in. ... I will be ranked at 147 and I want to see where they put me. I want to win a world title again. There are titles after this one, there are other big fighters out there, but we are taking it one step at a time.”
As for the world titles at 147, you’ve got Terence Crawford (WBO), Errol Spence Jr (IBF), Keith Thurman (WBA “super”), Manny Pacquiao (WBA “world”), and the Garcia-Porter winner will have the WBC belt. That fight also takes place on September 8.
Do you think Khan can get a world title again? Obviously he can get into sanctioning body rankings contention, that’s easy as pie, and as we all know, pie is exceptionally easy. But can he compete with the top guns at welterweight again?