Canelo Alvarez feared for Amir Khan’s life after flattening him in 2016.
The Brit moved up two weight classes to challenge Canelo for his WBC middleweight title at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Canelo left Khan flat on his back after connecting with a clubbing right handGETTY
Even though the 160lbs title was on the line, both men agreed to meet at a catchweight of 155lbs to even the playing field, although it didn’t help ‘King’ Khan escape his fate.
At the time, Khan was chasing a fight with unified welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather.
But after growing tired of waiting for his shot at the then-retired ‘TBE’, he accepted a call from Canelo’s former promoter Oscar De La Hoya.
The fight announcement took everyone by surprise with the size difference being a major talking point throughout the build-up.
Khan recalled: “I weighed in on the [fight] night at 158lbs, he was 187lbs. It was crazy.
“At the weigh-in, he didn’t seem that big, but when I saw him in the corner I was thinking, ‘What am I doing here?’
“He had his back to me. It was huge.” Khan
Khan had some early success thanks to his obvious speed advantage but the tide started to turn in round four when Canelo started to time the Brit’s advances.
In the sixth stanza, as Khan pawed out a lazy jab, Canelo came over the top with a clubbing right hand that laid the Olympic silver medallist flat on his back.
Khan banged his head on the canvas on the way down and later likened Canelo’s power to being ‘hit with a baseball bat’.
Khan challenged for Canelo’s WBC middleweight title in 2016Getty
Meanwhile, the Mexican superstar was left extremely concerned by his adversary’s condition in the immediate aftermath.
Reflecting on the finish during a candid interview with DAZN six years later, Canelo said: “With Amir Khan – he scared me a little, I felt a bit worried.
“I actually went over to see if he was ok. It was the natural reaction – the knockout was too strong.
“And on top of that, when he fell to the canvas he twisted his neck badly.
“So I thought something more than a knockout had happened.”
In the years that followed the clash, Canelo would go on to reign supreme over the super middleweight (168lbs) division as an undisputed champion while he also picked up the WBO light heavyweight (175lbs) title in 2019.
Khan returned to welterweight following the fight and after trading wins and losses with varying levels of opposition he eventually hung up his gloves in 2022.
