AMIR KHAN will unleash the latest boxing ace from the gene-pool Khanveyor belt this week as cousin Abdul gets his big break.
The 19-year-old made his pro debut in Dubai in October, after training alongside his mentor and manager for Saturday’s grudge straightener with Kell Brook, and aims to go 3-0 this weekend on the undercard.
And the 35-year-old former light-welter champ reckons his new protege is perfectly primed to run with his baton.
The 34-5 icon told SunSport: “Abdul is a very special talent and I’m extremely excited to see him join the professional ranks.
“I have followed his career since he had his first amateur fight around eight years ago and his long-term potential excites me.
“When I’m watching him fight, it’s like looking at myself at that age and with the right fights, at the right time, we will have a special journey.”
Abdul was not even born when the Khan vs Brook rivalry was born out of a schoolboy spar around 20 years ago.
But he is super-confident his mentor’s last dance will be a successful one, after struggling to keep the pace with the father-of-three during brutal desert training sessions.
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“I am really confident for Amir in the Brook fight,” the super-bantam beamed. “I am a good runner and he has been outdoing me, even though he is older and heavier.
“I think Amir’s speed will always be there but it even surprised me how rapid he still is.
“I know people will think I am biased but I really think he can stop Brook, because he has been hitting very hard.
“I never got to go to any of Amir’s fights because I was too young so it will be a great story to be on the undercard of the first one I can attend.”
Amir, whose brother Haroon also boxed, has enjoyed the highest highs possible in the hurt business and endured some of the harshest lows, from brutal knockouts to the dark side of fame.
But he never tried to talk his little cousin in or out of the family trade – so he can be sure he is doing it for the right reasons now, having just finished college.
Abdul told us: “Amir never told me to avoid boxing but he also never urged me to get into it, I just loved the sport growing up, with Amir and David Haye especially.
“When the idea to turn pro started getting serious, he gave me loads of advice and guidance but he has been doing that since I was a kid in the amateurs anyway.
“I used to watch Amir and always think he was so exciting, win or lose he was never in a boring fight.
“My favourite fight of his is Marcos Maidana, where he showed so much heart and proved to a lot of people he could fight a fighter and beat him at his own game.
“And I really think we could see something similar against Kell Brook because I know just how much it means to him.”
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