A YOUNG boxer is smiling again after world champion Amir Khan stepped in to replace stolen equipment that his grandma had bought for him as a birthday present.
Aaron Gray, aged 14, was left devastated when thieves took his punchbag, gloves and skipping rope, from the garage next to his home in Glynne Street, Farnworth.
The theft, just days before he fights in the final of the North West Area Schoolboy Championships at Gorton, would have severely hampered his preparations, but when Khan read about his plight in The Bolton News, he immediately decided to help.
Khan said: “I felt sorry for him when I read the article and said we had better help him.
“I didn't know he was from my Gloves Gym until we got in touch with him, but I would have been happy to help any young boxer.
“He is dedicated and if that had happened to me when I was young I would have b e e n devastated.
He is in a final and it will help him prepare for that.”
The equipment had only just been put up in the garage to help Aaron prepare for the final, his second in successive years.
“I am up against the same boxer who beat me last time, but I have improved a lot since I moved to the Gloves Gym and I have won my last three fights,” said the Harper Green School pupil.
“It is really great of Amir to do this and it will help in my preparations. I train three times a week at the gym but practise every night at home.
“Amir is a great role model and I would like to follow him as a professional.”
Oh Wow, he replaced some cheap equipment... Dig deal. Lets see him do some real charity like WV2 now that dude, is humble and you only hear good things from him.
LOL you fail.
Amir went to Pakistan after the Earthquake last year and spent a week there helping out families. He's also holding a fund-raising dinner later this month in order to raise money for charities.
Moreover, as a Muslim, it's his duty to give at least 2.5% of his yearly income to charity each year.
Oh Wow, he replaced some cheap equipment... Dig deal. Lets see him do some real charity like WV2 now that dude, is humble and you only hear good things from him.
So hard to judge his character sometimes, you read some of the utter Sh*t he comes out with on his twitter account and think he must be the biggest knob in the world..... Then he does something such as this. Keep off the twitter and i think people would start to like him a lot more...Well done Amir a very nice thing to do and shows he is still the same kid we admired so much when he was 17.
lol im pretty sure amir khan has already made "the big time". he is a multi millionaire already and could retire right now and live happily and financially secure forever.
Sure, Khan has money. But boxers rarely retire at his age and remain wealthy.
Khan hasn't headlined a PPV, and is not even considered number one in his weight class yet. And he's at the bottom end of the top p4p list.
Successful? For sure, but he has not hit the big time quite yet.
I don't have much doubt that he will be soon.