Amir Khan (boxer) - Amateur Career

Amateur Career

Khan began to box competitively at the age of 11, with early honours including three English school titles, three junior ABA titles, and gold at the 2003 Junior Olympics. In early 2004 he won a gold medal at the European Student Championships in Lithuania, and in South Korea several months later he won world junior lightweight title after fighting five times in seven days. One of his notable early amateur fights was against Victor Ortíz, whom he defeated in a second round stoppage.

Khan qualified for the 2004 Summer Olympics by finishing in first place at the 1st AIBA European 2004 Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. He was Britain's sole representative in boxing at the Athens Games, winning a silver medal at the age of 17 in the lightweight boxing category. He was Britain's youngest Olympic boxer since Colin Jones in 1976. He lost in the final to Mario Kindelan, the Cuban who had also beaten him several months earlier in the pre-Olympic match-ups in Greece. In 2005 he avenged the two losses by beating the 34-year-old Kindelan in his last amateur fight.

• 2003 – Won a gold medal at the AAU Junior Olympic Games.
• 2004 – Won a gold medal at the European Student Championships and the World Junior Championships.
• 2004 – Won the Strandja Cup to qualify for the Olympics in Athens
• 2004 – Won an amateur match against Victor Ortíz, who was stopped in the second round.
• 2004 – Won a silver medal at the Olympics, beating Marios Kaperonis, Dimitar Stilianov, Jong Sub Baik and Serik Yeleuov. He lost to Mario Kindelan in the final.
• 2005 – Beat Craig Watson on points in the ABA Championships.
• 2005 – Won the last match of his amateur career beating Mario Kindelan 19–13 at the Reebok Stadium.