Amir Khan ‘does not do enough training between fights and is letting skills deteriorate’ – blasts his OWN trainer Virgil Hunter
Trainer insists his man can continue in ring - but urged the Bolton hero to 'commit' to training while out of camp
AMIR KHAN “never has practice in between fights” revealed his trainer Virgil Hunter, who cast doubt over the Bolton hero’s commitment out of camp.
In Khan’s last contest, a bizarre sixth round stoppage loss to WBO welterweight champ Terence Crawford , for the first time in his career the 32-year-old was pulled out of the fight by his trainer.
Crawford was adjudged to have hit the 2004 Olympic silver medallist with a low-blow, and after looking over to Hunter with a beaten look the trainer called a halt to the world title fight.
One month on from the loss, and after mass calls for Khan to end his glittering 14-year career, Hunter told his man can continue in ring - but has to “commit” to training while out of camp.
Hunter said: "I would like to see him commit to many training camps in between fights and to work on his weaknesses before he makes that final decision to really see if his skills are gone, or if he is just letting them lay in a pile and deteriorate slowly.
"He never has practice in between fights. He trains hard for 10 weeks but it's not enough.
"There's little things that he does that cause him to be out of sync.
"His timing is off. His distance is not where it should be. He doesn't have a sense of range and distance and those things are not due to age. That's from practice.
"His hand speed is still there but his sense of distance and range is not there and that's what he needs to work on."
With Khan beaten for the fifth time in 38 bouts the former super-lightweight world champion is left short of potential counterparts.
Having snubbed a grudge match with arch rival Kell Brook for the shot at Crawford, Khan has insisted he would like to again resume talks with his domestic foe.
Brook, however, has plans to better Khan’s performance against Crawford by calling out the WBO and pound-for-pound star.
Promoter Eddie Hearn, though, is still keen to cash in on the fight between Khan and Brook - even with the rivalry all but burnt out.