Early Life
Amir Iqbal Khan was born on December 8, 1986, in Bolton, Greater Manchester, England. He is a descendant of the Janjua Rajput, a royal warrior clan in Pakistan, his family’s homeland. Amir graduated from Bolton Community College and is part of an athletic family. He focuses on boxing but is also an accomplished athlete in cricket, football, and basketball. Khan began boxing competitively while in elementary school, winning multiple honors by age 11, including Gold at the 2003 Junior Olympics and multiple Junior ABA titles. He went on to represent Britain in the 2004 Summer Olympics and won the Silver medal.
Professional Boxing
In 2008, Khan began his professional career by defeating Martin Kristjansen for the Commonwealth Lightweight title. After winning a few more bouts, he sacked his longtime trainer, Oliver Harrison. Amir then began training with Jorge Rubio, but the partnership was not a good one. Eventually, he began working with Freddie Roach and found his stride again. He continued to win professional bouts throughout the rest of his career, seeing his per-fight earnings skyrocket. In what some say was probably his greatest victory, Khan took on Argentinian Marcos Maidana on December 11, 2010. It was his fourth defense of his WBA world super-lightweight title. The Boxing Association of America coined it the “Fight of the Year,” and it lived up to the hype. Khan got off to a fast start, dropping “El Chino” with a vicious body shot in the first round. But the fight continued on, and in the tenth round, Maidana landed a big overhand right that had Khan wobbling. Amir somehow pushed through and gutted out one of the most resilient rounds of his career. Khan won the fight via unanimous decision with scorecards of 114-111, 114-111, and 113-112. On May 13, 2022, Amir Khan announced his retirement from boxing. His final record stands at 34-6 with 21 KOs.
Earnings
Amir claimed he had earned more than $80 million over his boxing career. In 2010’s Khan vs. Malignaggi fight, the HBO purse was $1.5 million, with Amir taking $1.1 million and Paulie the remaining $400,000. The aforementioned Khan vs. Maidana fight had Khan set to make $1.5 million and Maidana $550,000. One of Amir’s biggest paydays was when he fought Canelo Alvarez in 2016. He was guaranteed $2 million with Alvarez getting $3.5 million, but with Khan collecting 40% of PPV shares, this bumped his total income to around $20 million for a single fight.
Philanthropy
Amir has a history of supporting charities and being involved in communities. In 2004, he helped raise money for victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami, and the following year, he visited Pakistan to provide food after the Kashmir earthquake. His own charity organization, the Amir Khan Foundation, has taken on a number of projects, including the Water Wells project to provide wells in drought-stricken areas of Asia and Africa, the Gambia orphanage, the Orphan AID project to provide aid for Syrian refugees in Greece, and working alongside Barnado’s children’s charity in Britain.
