Following all the fallout and criticism for the way his fight against Terence Crawford ended on Saturday night (on an accidental low blow), Amir Khan maintains that it wasn’t a quit job and suggests there must’ve been some miscommunication with his trainer Virgil Hunter that caused him to call off the fight.
In the immediate post-fight interview Hunter says that Khan told him that he was unable to continue in the fight due to the pain he was suffering as a result of the blow from Crawford, but Khan says he really intended to carry through with the fight.
“I have never quit a fight in my life,” stated Khan. “My understanding was that Virgil asked me if the low blow still hurt and I said ‘yes’. My intention was to wait it out and continue like always.
“(I was) Peeing blood. The shot was low. The fight was just getting interesting. Well done team Terence.
Now the one thing I’ll point out here regarding Khan’s claim is that if he really did intend and want to continue in the fight, the stoppage from Hunter would have presumably incited some sort of reaction from Khan. However when the fight was stopped there was no complaint or protest from Khan, only the feint appearance of relief.
But despite the unsatisfying ending to the fight, Khan maintains that he’ll continue on in his boxing journey with no immediate plans to walk away from the sport. The question remains, however, how much this performance will hurt Khan’s brand and drawing power moving forward.