Amir Khan: Having a gun put in my face was a wake-up call

In February, he suffered a heavy defeat by long-time rival Kell Brook. Last week, he was robbed at gunpoint, with two men stealing his watch while he was out in London with his wife Faryal Makhdoom.

"Having a gun put in my face was a wake-up call," he tells BBC Three. "The fact that you could have been on the end of a bullet, it makes you realise, 'Maybe God's given me a second chance. Maybe it wasn't my time.'"

Amir says his experience in the ring has given him the mental tools to bounce back from such adversity but that Faryal has found things tougher.

"When we step into a boxing ring, you're always only one punch away from getting hurt," he says. "But after the fight everything's back to normal again. For Faryal, though, it was the first time she's been in any kind of situation like that." 

The couple flew straight to Dubai after the incident to be with their children, who were already at the family's home there.

"When something like that happens and you're close to death, you appreciate every little minute with your kids," Faryal says.

'I think this series is going to be amazing. You get to see me as a fighter'

BBC Three was speaking to Amir and Faryal before the launch of series two of reality TV programme Meet The Khans: Big in Bolton. 

Amir has been a pioneer in British boxing. In 2004, the Bolton fighter burst onto the scene as a 17-year-old at the Athens Olympics, winning silver there and paving the way for other British Olympians such as Anthony Joshua, Nicola Adams and James DeGale.

Now 35, he has fought 40 times, beating Marcos Maidana, Zab Judah and Devon Alexander and becoming a unified world champion.

His wife Faryal is a model, social media influencer and entrepreneur. Series two takes us inside her business enterprises, as well as giving unique access to Khan before his fight with Kell Brook.

Alongside that, we get to see the couple's spending habits - from £6m houses in London to handbags worth more than £20,000.

"I think this series is going to be amazing," Amir says. "You get to see me behind the scenes going into press conferences, at training camp in America, weigh-ins and behind the scenes of the fight itself. It's something that people have never seen before."

'I didn't feel like myself in that ring against Kell Brook'

Khan v Brook was one of the most bitter and long-running feuds in British boxing. The two fighters had been feuding for 17 years, and there had been talk of a fight for more than 10 years.

In February, they settled things in front of 22,000 fans at the Manchester Arena.

During the series, Faryal describes the fight as a "legacy" bout, saying: "If Amir loses, I don't think he'll be able to cope with that."

He was beaten, though - a punishing performance from the Sheffield's Brook forcing referee Victor Loughlin to stop the fight in the sixth round.

It was Amir's first bout since 2019, when he beat Billy Dib to win the WBC international welterweight title.

"I feel that my time out of the ring was one of the hardest things," he says. "You think you still have it – you might be training well, but I just didn't feel myself in that ring. I didn't feel like it was me.

"People have to understand I'm getting older. I've taken a two-year gap before when I was in my mid-20s and I came back strong but when you get into your 30s, your body is not used to taking long breaks off. I think it was a bit of a wake-up call for me."

Faryal believes the pressure got to Amir too.

"The majority of the fans were there for Amir," she says. "For the first time, Amir felt nervous."

'There were times I thought about postponing, but I couldn't let the fans down'

One of the things we see in the series is that Amir injured his shoulder before the fight.

"I'd torn my tendon and my rotator cuff was damaged, but I didn't want anyone to think I was making excuses," he says.

"I never told anyone about that injury. During training, I was working through a pain barrier. I didn't want to give my opponent an advantage by mentioning it." 

The series takes us inside Amir's camp in the United States with trainer Brian 'BoMac' McIntyre, who also trains Terence Crawford – one of the world's top three pound-for-pound boxers. We watch as Amir undergoes procedures to fix his shoulder.

"There were times during camp when I thought about postponing, but I couldn't let the fans down," he says. "This fight wasn't just for me.

"I didn't have it in me to let down thousands of people who had bought tickets. God's been kind to me - financially I'm secure – so I wasn't thinking about myself, I was thinking about the 22,000 people who bought tickets. I don't know what position they were in, what they had to sacrifice to come to the fight."

Faryal says she advised her husband to have a "tune-up" fight first.

"He was like: 'No, I want to take this fight and give back to the British fans,'" she says. "Everything happened so quickly and, you know, the camp was so cramped up – flying to the US, getting jet-lag, all of that. I just wish we'd paced it more slowly, but I guess everything happens for a reason."

There was real animosity between both fighters before the bout, and during the series we go behind the scenes at a news conference at whtcih things got really personal.

"Before the fight, there was animosity between me and Kell," Amir says. "We don't like each other. As it got closer to the fight, I let go of that, but I could see Kell still had that hate."

He says he feels differently now.

"We shared a few punches together, we shared a ring together – after that, it's brand new," he says. "Me and Kell can be friends now – that's what boxing does to you, where you can hate someone and then let it go."

'I'm taking more time to think about retirement'

Big questions now hang over the 35-year-old's future in boxing.

During the series, he goes back and forth. In one scene he reveals "the hunger's kind of died out" but in another says: "I think I'd be bored if I retired. I got so out of shape and lazy the past year."

Given time to reflect, he now says: "I'm taking more time to think about retirement. I don't want to call it a day and then come back.

"I want to keep my foot in the door. The love for the sport would be hard to take away."

Series two of Meet The Khans: Big in Bolton is available on BBC Three on Thursday at 8pm and on BBC iPlayer.