BoxRec

Turn pro now Warren tells Khan

British Olympic silver medallist Amir Khan has been urged to give up the amateur code and turn professional. The advice comes from Sports Network boss allegedly who has told the Bolton youngster, "You can't buy a house or feed your family with a gold medal." Khan’s ambition is to stay amateur for another 4 years and capture gold at the Beijing Games in 2008 but that isn’t the path Warren wants the 17 year old to take.

Warren, the leading promoter in the UK and Europe and has turned many young hopefuls into superstars and wants Khan to follow in the same footsteps:
"He's got more chance of becoming a world champion at the age of 21 than he has of winning a gold medal," said the SN head.

"He's a natural for the professional game. He's got good hand speed, he moves well and I think that as a fight goes on he'll get stronger. That's why I think he should turn pro now.

"At the end of the day, if you are a young, fit, precocious footballer, at the age of 16 or 17 you can be playing in the Premier League. If you are a precocious tennis player you could be playing at Wimbledon," explained Warren.

"Why is boxing any different? Why has everybody got a big downer on somebody who has got this god-given talent being able to cash in on it.

"I think he has the boxing brain to do that. It would be a great loss to the amateurs but a great gain for the pros. If he turned pro of course I'd like to work with him, it would be a privilege and we'd make a great team."

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Can't say I think its a good idea myself, he has only had 14 ametur fights, I personaly think he would do well to get a bit of savy in the ametur ranks even till the commonwealf games.

I think the is a bit of self interest involved hear and Kahn would be involved to stick round as an ametur and then evaluate his options, if at that point he still wants to get the WBU title and defend if 30 times he can sign with SN

Oppinions?

that bit when he goes tennis players r on the tour at 17 and footballers r playing in the premiership at 17. there's a big difference in boxing though cos grown men r thumping u around.

he should give it 2 yrs and weigh it up then. but ideally i say go for gold in 2008. as long as the cubans don't come up with someone decent he should be alright for gold by then.

hitman_hatton1 wrote:that bit when he goes tennis players r on the tour at 17 and footballers r playing in the premiership at 17. there's a big difference in boxing though cos grown men r thumping u around.

he should give it 2 yrs and weigh it up then. but ideally i say go for gold in 2008. as long as the cubans don't come up with someone decent he should be alright for gold by then.

Even if the Cubans came up with someone decent they'd have to be exceptional. Khan will be four years more experienced and a better fighter in 2008. He only lost by 8 pts to a guy who'd been unbeaten in competition for about 5 years.

Matchfixer wrote:

hitman_hatton1 wrote:that bit when he goes tennis players r on the tour at 17 and footballers r playing in the premiership at 17. there's a big difference in boxing though cos grown men r thumping u around.

he should give it 2 yrs and weigh it up then. but ideally i say go for gold in 2008. as long as the cubans don't come up with someone decent he should be alright for gold by then.

Even if the Cubans came up with someone decent they'd have to be exceptional. Khan will be four years more experienced and a better fighter in 2008. He only lost by 8 pts to a guy who'd been unbeaten in competition for about 5 years.

true but the cubans seem to have a knack of coming up with em. u never know what could happen in 4 yrs. i'm sure there's already someone waiting in the wings.

In terms of the Cubans they may gain an edge because their training is better, their up and commings fight the best in sparing every day. Kahn will only have those kind of fights in the world championchip every year.

Even so I want him to stay ameture as the quality of professionals he will be put in against will not add much to his game and he will not have much of a chance to work on his fundimentals. He has only had 14 ametur fights at seniour level, procosiouse yes but boxers need expireance.

It would be nice to see Amir stay in the vest for at least another 2 years, get more experience etc by going to the Worlds and Senior ABA's etc.

However staying around for the 2008 games is very risky, Amir may get injured, robbed early on, anything could happen. Anything less than a Gold medal will be viewed as a poor show in many areas.

Eitherway he is a very promicing talent.

KOJOE90 wrote:It would be nice to see Amir stay in the vest for at least another 2 years, get more experience etc by going to the Worlds and Senior ABA's etc.

However staying around for the 2008 games is very risky, Amir may get injured, robbed early on, anything could happen. Anything less than a Gold medal will be viewed as a poor show in many areas.

Eitherway he is a very promicing talent.

Plus he will undoubtedly be in a heavier division in 4yrs time.

I'm not a fan of Warren but think that he is possibly right here, a gold in 4 years will not be really that much better than his silver now and anything less than gold would be a disapointment. There is also the chance of Amir going stale and leaving his best fighting in the amuteurs if he waits another 4 years. If he turned pro now and was looked after as he develpoed he could well be a world pro champ in 4 years rather than Olimpic champ and for me the pro game is what its all about.

Out of interest, in theory could Khan turn Pro, have four fights for some good, well hyped paydays then return to the Amatuers? I know they brought that sort of rule in a few years ago, but can British fighters do that?

A fighter can have 1 pro fight and still fight as an amateur afterwards, but he cant fight in international tournaments.

I just hope he can stay ametur till 2006 then he will have two world championships under his belt and the commonwealfe which will be worth a hell of a lot expireance wise than fighting a bum a month as he would in the pro's

A lot of people think Khan should turn pro but look at the reaction Kev Mitchell has got. True he has a following but he's hardly fighting the strongest of opponents. Would anyone really want to see Khan do that?

Surely he'd learn more fighting decent amateurs than journeymen pros.

Matchfixer wrote:A lot of people think Khan should turn pro but look at the reaction Kev Mitchell has got. True he has a following but he's hardly fighting the strongest of opponents. Would anyone really want to see Khan do that?

Surely he'd learn more fighting decent amateurs than journeymen pros.

kevin mitchell was stupid not giving the olympics a shot :x he only had to wait a year.

hitman_hatton1 wrote:

Matchfixer wrote:A lot of people think Khan should turn pro but look at the reaction Kev Mitchell has got. True he has a following but he's hardly fighting the strongest of opponents. Would anyone really want to see Khan do that?

Surely he'd learn more fighting decent amateurs than journeymen pros.

kevin mitchell was stupid not giving the olympics a shot :x he only had to wait a year.

I wonder if Naseem Hamed ever regrets not going to the Olympics? Ok he had a very sucsessfull Pro career and has made millions of pounds, but purely from an althletic achievment point of view.

Many Boxers have stated that one of the highlights of their Boxing career was going to the Olympics.

I'd like to see Amir wait another 4 years to turn pro. Competing in the world championships (and hopefully winning them) and culminating with a gold at Bejing will only increase his value. And on a personal level he can enjoy his life a little more for the next 4 years....

By this time he may possibly be able to talk to genuine big promoters from the US and not have to concern himself with small-fry wannabees like Warren.

if Khan stays amatuer , we have the commonwelth games in a couple of years, he should walk that. That will earn himself more exposure to the casual fans, in the build up to the Beijing Games.

KOJOE if Hamed was bothered about athletic acheivement he would nt be 5 Stone overweight,and he would still be fighting so the answer i guess is no he wouldnt have been bothered about the olympics

Goz wrote:By this time he may possibly be able to talk to genuine big promoters from the US and not have to concern himself with small-fry wannabees like Warren.

ouch