Amir Khan Flies to Pakistan to Assist With Disaster Relief

WBA junior welterweight (140 pounds) champion Amir Khan of England has flown to Pakistan to assist with disaster relief.

The 23-year-old Khan (23-1, 17 knockouts), a former Olympic silver medalist of Pakistani descent, left for Pakistan early on Monday but already had been raising awareness concerning the flooding disaster that rages on in Pakistan.

"You know, I'm going to go over to Pakistan and show my support. My parents came over from Pakistan. They were born there. I was born in England. But still, I have my roots. I got family there, and plenty of relatives there. My mom just came back from visiting there," Khan told FanHouse during a recent interview.

"Six weeks ago, I was in Pakistan just before the weather kicked in the floods kicked in. I left just before that. I was in America when the floods happened, and I saw lots of live links to what was going on on news stations," said Khan. "It's sad to see over 2,000 people have died in this disaster, and over 15 million people have been affected."

What is happening in Pakistan for Khan is similar to the situations which affected Polish-born former light heavyweight (175 pounds) and cruiserweight (200 pounds) champion Tomasz Adamek, WBO welterweight (147 pounds) king Manny Pacquiao, and WBC welterweight titlist Andre Berto found themselves when they faced crisis' in their respective countries of Poland, the Philippines and Haiti.

Pacquiao and Berto assisted with disaster relief in their countries associated with flooding and an earthquake, respectively, while Adamek dedicated his victory over Chris Arreola to the 96 passengers and crew who died in a plane crash in Russia near Smolensk, including Polish President Lech Kaczynski and several political, military and religious leaders.

"This disaster, compared to the Pakistan earthquake about two years ago, and the Haiti disaster and also the tsunami in Thailand, if you could put all of those three together, the floods in Pakistan are as bad or worse than those," said Khan.

"In Pakistan, it's a real shame because it seems like it's on its last legs," said Khan. "It seems to me that they really need help. I'm not a politician, and I like to stay out of politics, but there are a lot of things that need improving in that country. This is a wake up call for Pakistan."






Khan has concern for several relatives presently living in Pakistan, although he has not yet heard of any of them being affected.

"I've got my mother's mother, and my aunt is there. I've got a lot of aunts and uncles and cousins there. It's something like 50 or 60 family members over there. About 10 families. To be honest with you, we've been quite fortunate because the area that they live in has not been affected by the floods," said Khan.

"Maybe it's because they're higher up, I don't know. But they've not been affected," said Khan. "But there are other places that have been affected quite badly, and everyone is directly or indirectly feeling the affects of it. I've been checking to make sure that everything is okay, and they've said that it is."

Khan is considering an HBO-televised, Dec. 11 bout with Argentinian-born WBA interim king Marcos Rene Maidana in the United Kingdom, as well as future opportunities against WBA and WBO lightweight (135 pounds) titlist and three-division champion Juan Manuel Marquez, and the Jan. 29 winner between southpaw WBC and IBF counterpart Devon Alexander and WBO king Timothy Bradley.

Marquez has elected to defend his WBO crown against interim WBO champ Michael Katsidis on Nov. 27 on HBO at a site to be determined. Khan is promoted by Golden Boy Promotions.