Amir Khan vs Samuel Vargas: The kid who never left us is eager, smiling and ready to fight again

Khan last won a world title fight in 2011 but with a new trainer and a new mindset he could yet return to the very top of his sport once again

It often feels like the kid has never left us and the bright-eyed boy of the long Athens summer of 2004 is still here eager, smiling and ready to fight.

Amir Khan has just returned to England from his latest training camp in Los Angeles for the final days in the gym before the 37th fight of his career against Samuel Vargas on September 8 in Birmingham.

Khan last won a world title fight in 2011, he has waited for lucrative fights, accepted crazy fights, suffered several calamities, ate contraband strawberries in the Celebrity Jungle surrounded by ghastly critters and has been an attraction since his first fight at the Athens Olympics.

He was Britain’s only boxer that summer, drawn against impossible odds with European, Asian and Olympic champions between him and a gold medal; he won four fights and at just 17 lost in the lightweight final to Mario Kindelan, arguably the greatest Cuban boxer ever and at the time Fidel Castro’s favourite fighter. Khan won the first, lost the second and third and drew the last round in the final, dropping a 30-22 decision against Kindelan, chasing the Cuban in the final seconds on that night at the very end of August.

Kindelan was handed a fat package of cash one night the following May when he fought a rematch with Khan in Bolton, live on ITV in an extraordinary event; Khan won, punched Kindelan deep into retirement, then turned professional live that Saturday night and the journey started. Khan looked no older than 15, the boy next door, as he smiled and made wonderful promises. “He will be a world champion by the time he is 21,” said Frank Warren. Khan was 18 at the time and Warren’s prediction was wrong by just a year.

However, his glittering passage was so nearly ruined when he was knocked out in just 54 seconds in September 2008 in front of his family, gathered at ringside like they were celebrating a wedding and not watching their son, brother, cousin, nephew fight an unbeaten banger called Breidis Prescott.

After that truly awful loss he changed his trainer for the third time, relocated to Freddie Roach’s gym in a squalid part of Hollywood, won two fights and then lifted the world title. It remains one of sport’s most remarkable comebacks, an act of wizardry by Roach in the gym and Warren performing magic tricks at the negotiating table made it happen.

Khan's personal life has been front page news in recent years (Getty)

During the next few years he has won, lost, changed trainers, switched promoters, made a few lurid headlines, been linked with the sport’s biggest names, had a fabulous wedding and remains a fixture. He is 31 now, but it feels like Khan has been in British boxing for decades.

“I’m still learning and still enjoying being in the gym,” insists Khan, who is now with Joe Goossen, a Californian and one of boxing’s seemingly ageless purists. “I’m not getting hit as much with Joe. This is perfect for me, he concentrates on me - he can spend hours just watching me, not working with dozens of other fighters.”

Khan beat Phil Lo Greco last time out (Getty Images)

Khan had been under the expensive tutelage of Roach for a long time and that included spells where Freddie had a lot of other commitments, a lot of other money-fighters sweating away in his gym.

Goossen is Khan’s sixth trainer and should be the last pairing of his career. He is known as a great sixty-second man, which is crucial at the highest level, especially with inevitably volatile fighters just like Khan. Goossen will be there for Khan at his weakest moments, the critical gaps between rounds when he needs good advice from a man that will make him listen, stay vigilant and not stray away to some mystery freestyle calling. Goossen will make him hear the wise words that could guide the pair of them back to title glory.