Amir Khan faces battle with wife Faryal to let him carry on boxing after Terence Crawford defeat

JUST when you think Amir Khan has had his last meaningful fight, he now faces the toughest one of his career.

Left battered by Terence Crawford, the 32-year-old ex-world champion now has to convince terrified wife Faryal, 27, to let him fight on.

On Saturday WBO welterweight king Crawford floored Khan with a head shot in round one and belted his crown jewels in the sixth.

A confused combination of Khan and trainer Virgil Hunter told referee David Fields that he was quitting and the stigma is likely to tarnish his reputation after a brilliant career.

Khan said: “My wife hates me fighting. She’s always afraid. She just says ‘I turn my phone off and I’m always praying and I don’t know what’s happening’.

“She hates me boxing and has never been a fan of me being in the ring.

“But it’s just going to be for this one time in my life and then after that I can spend the rest of my life with my family.

“I have to be ready to finish. I don’t want to finish thinking ‘Could I have fought again?’ You have to do it at the right time, it has to be a solid decision.

“Retiring at the wrong time would haunt me. I don’t want to retire and then come back. When I call it a day, I call it a day. That’s it.”

Just a few hours after getting beaten up in Madison Square Garden and slaughtered on social media he invited the British press up to his hotel room.

DAUGHTER UPSET

Heartbroken still, he now has to explain the welts and scratches on his face to his eldest daughter.

But at least he will be close to her, after 12 weeks locked away in his San Francisco camp while she has been attending school at home in Manchester.

He said: “We’ve been apart for three months but now my daughters can be cuddled up with daddy.

“Lamaisah gets upset when she sees the marks because she understands now and it’s not nice.

“She is proud of me and I explain to her that this is what hard work is and this is what you have to go through.

“Everything I do is for them, including getting hit in the face.”

After TWENTY FOUR years of training, running, sparring and dieting, he admits to eyeing up his release from the what he compares to a lengthy prison sentence.

He said: “I started training aged eight and retirement would take a lot of pressure off me.

“When I do anything I think about boxing first. When I go out with my friends or on vacation I think about boxing first.

“Everything I eat I think about boxing first. It would take a lot of pressure off once I’ve retired. You are then a free man.”