The 60 seconds that saved his boxing career: How Amir Khan's survival instinct defied his heavy legs

Khan can be badly hurt but yet, in any fight at this level, he can slug and box his way to a win

In his 14th year as a professional boxer it seems ancient memories and flaws continue to haunt Amir Khan on his relentless quest inside the ropes.

On Saturday night in Birmingham he walked out to face square-jawed Samuel Vargas, won just about every round, dropped his opponent twice, was dropped heavily and then started talking about massive fights, nasty grudge fights. It is the Khan way, a lunatic franchise that has been on a long, difficult but never boring journey for so, so many years.

Khan is now 32 in human years, considerably older in boxing years and the sight of him going down heavy, confused and wide-eyed in round two was the latest unnecessary reminder of a savage history everybody in the Khan business has seen too many times. The blood-stained script with him dancing a pitiless boogie forms a horror backdrop to a thousand sleepless nights as Khan, in front, in control of a fight, before boom; he gets clipped, loses his head, his legs and then unravels.

Khan hit the canvas early on in the fight but recovered (Getty)

However, Khan never loses his sense of survival and on Saturday night as he jumped up - too quick, by the way - in the second, the bell sounded to end the round and Khan had no idea if he was in Bolton, Los Angeles or Birmingham. It was a dark moment, his walk off kilter as he heavy-legged it back to his corner for sixty of the most important seconds in his life; Vargas had been hit repeatedly clean and dropped earlier in the same round, cleared his head and if he had sent Khan down ten seconds earlier, I would be scripting the boxing end of Khan’s career right now. That onerous missive has been delayed, but as a keen Khan watcher, a witness to the boy becoming a fighting man, there is that sense of dread that perhaps he needs protecting from his immense heart and desire to win.

In Khan’s corner now is a man called Joe Goossen, the boxer’s fifth trainer, and he is one of the last remaining kings of the sixty-second break. Under Goossen’s gaze, hands and words Khan recovered, dropped Vargas in the third and then boxed his way to the end of twelve rounds to take a wide unanimous decision. Khan’s business continues, but a better fighter would have put an end to the mission on Saturday night. Khan has now been dropped in fights under all five of his trainers, which might just be an odd record - he has also regained his feet in fights under all of his trainers.

At ringside Kell Brook, like Khan a former world champion and also like Khan the bruised and broken side of a couple of awful defeats, pledged with some conviction to knock out Khan. They have been talking about a fight for a long time and it now looks possible for December; Brook appears to have agreed to drop a few pounds, make the welterweight limit and secure the meeting. Khan, meanwhile, has his eyes fixed on a fight with Manny Pacquiao, the iconic veteran and current WBA champion at welterweight.

Khan has sparring history with both, the memory of traded punches from a decade or more ago in rounds open to interpretation and deception. Brook hits considerably harder than Vargas, who was hired for his durability and mouth, and would start as a favourite, but not necessarily the box-office attraction in what could be one of about ten pay-per-view fights on British television between now and the end of the year. A big fight will get made for Khan.

It makes very little difference what Khan does next, which of the men he picks and that is because in any fight at this level he can be badly hurt and in any fight at this level he can slug and box his way to a win. The Olympic child from 2004, a vicious Bambi of just 17, is in many ways one of the most traditional of fighters: he is orthodox in style, vulnerable, brave and - as the old posters used to say - never in a dull fight. Khan will certainly be in a few more memorable fights, but I just wonder how many more times the people that love and care for him will allow. Hopefully, not that many.