Boxing:Amir Khan is targeting April for his return to the ring and hopes a rematch with Danny Garcia can be made for later in 2013.
After back-to-back losses against Lamont Peterson in December 2011 and then Garcia in July, Khan concluded 2012 on a more positive note last weekend with a 10th-round stoppage win over Carlos Molina at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena.
And looking to the year ahead, the Bolton fighter is planning for his next bout to be in around four months’ time, with another showdown with Garcia — who added Khan’s WBA light-welterweight title to his WBC belt when he beat him — to come after that.
Khan told Press Association Sport: “The next fight is going to be around April time. That will give me a nice little break. Then I want to be back in the ring again and then trying for the rematch with Danny Garcia. Next year should be a very good year for me.
“In April I’m looking at it being a fight in the 140lbs division for a world title, and then at unifying it with the Garcia fight — if he gets through his fight with Zab Judah (in February).
“Boxing is a sport where one punch can change a fight, but hopefully he wins that fight, I get through mine in April and then maybe at the end of the year it will be a good fight with him.”
In what was the third defeat of his professional career, Khan was knocked to the floor three times by Garcia en route to a fourth-round stoppage in Las Vegas.
The 26-year-old has since switched trainers from Freddie Roach to Virgil Hunter and he feels confident mistakes he made against Philadelphian Garcia — who has indicated his willingness to fight Khan again if a satisfactory deal can be struck — would not be repeated in a rematch.
“I was beating him (Garcia) convincingly and then got caught with a shot. I think I was beating him more easily for the first two or three rounds than I was Molina,” Khan said. I believe in myself in that fight. I got caught by a shot I shouldn’t have been caught by.
“Maybe I was too confident, thinking I was untouchable and that no-one could hurt me. But it is all about regrouping myself and I will be back stronger now. My new trainer is going to help me a lot — I already see a change in my style. We are not going to make these mistakes again and we are not going to be giving opponents a chance now.”
In terms of his next opponent, Khan acknowledged there has been “talk” about him taking on California’s Josesito Lopez but hastened to add that “nothing has been finalised”.
He also confirmed he had not suffered fractures to his hands in the Molina fight. “My hands are fine. I thought they might be fractured because they were quite painful after the fight. After the number of shots I threw on Carlos Molina, you could see I was going to have injured hands, but it was only swelling. There were no breakages or anything, so that is good.”