Brian 'Bomac' McIntyre thinks the latest version of Amir Khan will show flashes of his brilliant youth.
The new trainer of the longtime welterweight contender from Bolton, England, has been preparing Khan for his grudge match against bitter rival Kell Brook of Sheffield that will take place at the Manchester Arena in Manchester on Feb. 19.
McIntyre, best known as the head coach of welterweight titleholder Terence Crawford, believes Khan will look like his former self, back when he was facing top contenders, such as Devon Alexander, Marco Maidana, Lamont Peterson, Danny Garcia, and Luis Collazo.
“You’re definitely going to see a whole different Amir from his previous fights,” McIntyre told Boxing Social. “You’re going to see the old Amir when he was fighting Devon Alexander, when he was fighting guys like Maidana, guys like that, where the hand speed is there, the mental awareness is there, just the capability of doing what he wants to do is there.”
There is, of course, something ironic about McIntyre training Kahn. McIntyre was in Crawford’s corner in 2019, when the Nebraskan fought and stopped Khan inside six rounds of their welterweight title bout at Madison Square Garden in New York City. On the other hand, it could be seen as fitting that Khan has linked up with McIntyre, given that Crawford knocked out Brook the the fourth round of their welterweight title bout in 2020 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Since he had previous experience coming up with a strategy against Brook (39-3, 27 KOs), McIntyre says he was comfortable taking Khan (34-5, 21 KOs) on as a client.
“If I can beat Kell Brook one time, I can beat him the second time, so it was a pretty decision that me and the team made,” McIntyre said.
The unlikely pairing happened after Khan’s wife had reached out to somebody within McIntyre’s team. Shortly thereafter, Khan flew to Omaha for a few workouts with McIntyre. After a session in Colorado Springs, where McIntyre has held many of his training camps, Khan was then sold on what McIntyre had to offer.
McIntyre, who also trains former 130-pound titleholder Jamel Herring and former 140-pound titleholder Maurice Hooker, says getting Khan in tip-top shape was his biggest priority, and a big reason why he believes his charge will look as though he took a dip in the Fountain of Youth come fight night.
“He just has to make sure physically he’s in shape,” McIntyre said of working with Khan. “If he’s not in shape to do the things that you want him to do, he’s going to mentally fall apart. That’s not him, that’s any other fighter, if you don’t physically get him together.
“So that was the most important thing, getting the body together and getting the mind right and everything else will fall in line.”
