On Saturday night, April 20, Amir Khan stuck it to boxing fans when he refused to continue after he was hit with a legitimate low blow in the sixth round by WBO Welterweight champion Terence Crawford. The left uppercut was supposed to bang Khan’s body, but the punch landed in the Brit’s nether regions. However, it does appear to hit him on the leg and perhaps in the testicle area. It’s hard to say for certain.
It would have been perfectly understandable for Khan to take five minutes to recover, but when his trainer Virgil Hunter asked him if he could continue, he said no. ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith took note of this as well.
Moments later, Hunter was interviewed and he used different verbiage. In this interview, it sounds more like it was his decision, and not Khan’s to stop the fight:
It doesn’t matter if it was Khan or Hunter who informed the referee, ultimately this falls on the fighter. If Khan goes over to the corner showing a willingness to continue, there is no way Hunter stops the bout. Hunter did what any good trainer would do. He read his fighter and made a decision on his behalf based on the messages Khan was sending with his body language and words.
