By Lem Satterfield
LAS VEGAS -- WBA junior welterweight king, Amir Khan, and his father, Shah Kahn, have confirmed to BoxingScene.com that they are considering re-appointment of recently fired strength and conditioning guru, Alex Ariza, as an assistant to Khan's trainer, Freddie Roach -- this, in response to a suggestion by Roach.
"I got a call from Freddie and he said, 'Listen, I need to get you together with Alex and Amir together and let's sit down and try to talk it out.' So we're going to speak to him. Freddie put everything together, you know?" said Shah Khan.
"Amir didn't approach Freddie, I did not approach Freddie. I did not approach anybody," said Shah Khan. "[Attorney] Nick Khan rang me and asked me for this, and I said, 'Yeah, fine, we'll sit down and we'll talk about it. It's fine, no problem. But I'm sure that it can all be resolved. So we're going to see him later on tonight, you know?"
Ariza was not in the corner of Khan (25-1, 17 knockouts) for last month's sixth-round, technical decision victory over Irish southpaw Paul McCloskey (22-1, 12 KOs).
Until then, Ariza had worked alongside Roach with Khan for six fights, having joined Khan following his first-round knockout loss to Breidis Prescott in September of 2008, after which Khan went 6-0, with four knockouts.
A former Olympic silver medalist, Khan was trained by Michael Vale for McCloskey after having removed Ariza following December's unanimous decision victory over then-interim WBO junior welteweight belt-holder, Marcos Rene Maidana (30-2, 27 KOs).
Roach and Ariza are in Las Vegas to be in the corner of eight-division titlist, Manny Pacquiao (52-3-2, 38 KOs) for Saturday night's WBO welterweight title defense against Shane Mosley (46-6-1, 39 KOs) at the MGM Grand Hotel.
Khan is in Las Vegas for Friday night's Boxing Writers Association of America dinner at the MGM, where Khan is to receive Fight of the Year honors for his victory over Maidana, and Roach will receive honors for the fifth time as Trainer of The Year.
BoxingScene.com caught up to Amir and Shah Khan at Friday's Pacquiao-Mosley weigh-in at the MGM.
"My conditioning was great for the Maidana fight. Everyone knows that Alex is a great conditioning coach. I mean, look at Manny Pacquiao and myself. But there are a few things that we have to get ironed out. I think that it would be good if we could get things ironed out," said Amir Khan.
"But I'm going to see what Freddie thinks first and then take it from there. We're going to sit down with Freddie Roach and we're going to see what Freddie thinks. At the end of the day, it's the boxing business. I've been cool with Alex," said Khan. "But it's one of those things, you know what I mean? Sometimes you have to change things in camp. But I'm going to sit down with Freddie first and talk to him and we'll take it from there. Freddie's the boss. We'll have an answer for you in about a week's time, probably."