Amir Khan fight with Neeraj Goyat OFF after opponent suffers serious head, face and arm injuries in horror car crash
AMIR KHAN'S fight against Neeraj Goyat is OFF after his opponent was involved in a horror car crash.
The bout was set to happen on July 12 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in an "India vs Pakistan" boxing battle.
But Goyat is unable to fight after suffering “severe injuries to his head, face and arm".
Khan will now take on Aussie Billy Dib - who usually operates at featherweight or super feather.
A statement was released by the promoter of the Super Boxing League Bill Dosanjh.
It read: “We are very sad to inform that our star Indian boxer Neeraj Goyat who was preparing for his mega-fight against Amir Khan had a car accident last night that has caused him severe injuries.
"He is currently in hospital and we wish him a speedy recovery.
Dib, 33 confirmed the news on his twitter saying he is looking forward to his “real life Rocky moment" when he takes on the Bolton boxer Khan.
He wrote: “In life you get a limited number of opportunities to do something monumental, and like the greatest in any industry will tell you, when an opportunity comes knocking you answer.
“This is my real life Rocky Moment.”
CRAWFORD REDEMPTION
The fight against Goyat was supposed to provide Khan the perfect bounceback after his shattering defeat by Terence Crawford.
The Bolton welterweight, 32, was accused of being a quitter after his April WBO title clash with pound-for-pound king Crawford ended with a whimper.
Ex-world champ Khan was pulled out of the contest claiming he could not continue after a low blow from the unbeaten American.
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Khan’s brave reputation, earned by taking on the likes of Marco Antonio Barrera, Marcos Maidana and Canelo Alvarez, took an even bigger blow.
But he jumped into a tune-up bout with Indian Goyat, with only a few weeks of training - after a month’s rest for Ramadan - to exorcise some demons.
But now he will have to prepare for a new opponent.