I have been very lucky with what I have achieved.
— Amir Khan
Straight after the Prescott fight, people were saying, 'He's finished. He's not going to come back.' There were only racial remarks made. But, you know what, it made me stronger. It made me come back even stronger. It made me a better fighter.
In America, they treat me like God.
Whose mother wants to see her son fight? It's very hard for her - but boxing is in my blood.
People always want to see that, the young lion going to take the old lion out.
I've won the world title - what I've dreamt of since the age of eight.
I want to thank Kotelnik for letting me have a shot at the title. I'm so confident I'm going to beat him. He thinks that me moving up a weight, I won't be as strong, but I'm very strong. I'm a hard-hitting fighter.
I know people didn't think I'd become a world champion - even people probably in my own camp, my own team, didn't think I'd become a world champion this quickly.
I've been working a lot on my lateral movement, and angles - it's coming natural to me now - and on different techniques, keeping my hands right.
I came back from the Olympic Games, and straightaway, I'm this role model. So that means I can't mess around with my mates like I used to because, if I do, people are going to use it to knock me down.
I always said as an amateur that I'd want to one day fight and beat Kindelan because he was the best out there.
I want to retire from boxing by the time I am 25 or 26 and be a legend by that age.
It's got difficult for me to walk down the street without people stopping me to ask for an autograph or to talk to me about boxing.
Boxing changed my life twice.
I did have a chance to box for Pakistan, but I've lived here all my life, gone to school; all my coaches and everyone's here, and I feel English.
I want a super-fight with a massive name, and I'd love it in a stadium.
I'm proud to be British.
Boxing is an addiction.
I can only say that sometimes skin colour does make a difference.
I'm very experienced in four-round fights because of my amateur career, and I've got a high work rate.
When you drop weight, the closer you come to the fight, the more your muscles tighten up.
What happened to me against Prescott didn't make Prescott a better fighter than me.
I want people talking about me as a great fighter - from being a prospect with the big pressure as soon as I turned professional, then going on to win the world title.
If you start throwing eight or nine shots, you're going to get caught - bang - and the fight could be over.
One thing for sure is that I am not going to attempt to knock Barrera out. My boxing ability and my speed are the attributes that will get me the win.
There were no Asian lads boxing when I started.
Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales are the guys I want to base myself on. They fight with their whole heart and with such work-rate. They just don't stop punching. I want to be like that - never boring.
I think it is very important to keep the kids off the street and out of trouble.
If I get a bit big-headed, I get a good clip round the ear from my family and friends. I'm still the same person.
Of course I will turn professional at some stage. Then I want to be a world champion and finish up a legend and be out of the sport by the time I am 27.
All the bad press I was getting puts you on a downer, so really, you come to a stage where you start hating yourself, in a way, because you're not in control.
My main priorities were to fight for Britain. Not a lot of Asians get selected for this country at anything, and it's a great achievement.
I respect other religions and other cultures.
I know for a fact if I were a white English fighter, maybe I would have been a superstar in Britain - and the world.
I used to eat what I want, on a junk diet, and used to think I could make my weight easy and kill myself over the last four or five days.
With me being a sportsman and being an icon who people know, if I can even send a little message across which will maybe help a lot of people, I'm going to do that.
The good thing about being nervous is that you perform better.
As an amateur, we used to fight people from the same gym. You'd spar with each other and then fight each other in championships.
That's boxing - one punch can win a fight.
My ambition from day one in this sport has been to become a world superstar.
The Prescott fight made me change from a boy to a man: it took me out of my comfort zone because when you lose a fight, you look at the mistakes and everything. That is what happened. I've changed from a boy to a man.
People come into fights against me and say this and that, but when they realise how quick and how hard I hit, their game plan disappears.
King chiller. That was me.
I look out there, and I see that Floyd Mayweather stands head and shoulders above everyone else. He's another fighter I would like to base myself on because he's got incredible fast hands and feet. He's flashy but, man, is he good.
I don't want to get punched all my life.
I've been to so many dos and presentation dinners and TV shows. I've been among all the top stars - soap stars, people from music - it's been brilliant. But I've kept my feet on the ground.
Religion was very influential because when it got really bad, and you don't know who to turn to, but I turned to God and was praying and meditating, that really helped.
I'm confident I can take the gold in Beijing.
I'm an orthodox fighter, relaxed, fast, and powerful. And I've got good footwork.
I try to fix things between the Asian community and the English community. There are always going to be racial things there, not getting on with each other and stuff. I have tried to break that barrier.
