It is nice to see the bright sparkle is back in Amir Khan's eyes to replace the disturbing blank look he had the last time he was in a boxing ring after a fight. On Saturday in Liverpool he fights again against a wonderfully selected Canadian called Phil Lo Greco.
Khan is now 31, and he insists he is now finished with the celebrity circuit. He's stopped the open squabbles on social media and for three months he has turned back his boxing clock. "I'm back in love with boxing. I'm enjoying being back in the gym and I'm learning every day," said Khan. He sounds and looks sincere.
It's still possible to recognise the tiny boy from the Athens Olympics -- a truly precocious 17-year-old boxer -- when Khan talks with such enthusiasm. However, that brilliant kid was so long ago, so many defeats, setbacks, heartaches and disasters ago that he can only be glimpsed for a second or two.
The setbacks define Khan in many ways and that is not unique in boxing; the narrow loss in the Olympic final to Mario Kindelan, the savage 54-second knockout to Breidis Prescott in 2008, the rubbery legs in the Danny Garcia defeat and the sleeping body at the end of the Canelo Alvarez fight in 2016. Khan has not fought since the Alvarez loss.
Khan's boxing journey has been a relentless, often chaotic and always entertaining trip. He's fought so often with his heart and not his head and that has led to thrills, spills, glory and bitter defeat. He's fought 35 times, with four defeats but since 2012 he has been inactive too often and for far too long: he had 2 fights in 2012, one in 2013, two in 2014, one each in 2015 and 2016. He was inactive in 2017, other than a high-profile and comical stint in a 'jungle' on a celebrity show.
In 2007 when Khan was 18-0 in fights and a big attraction, his trainer at the time, Jorge Rubio, a Cuban exile, selected the unbeaten Colombian Prescott, who had knocked out 17 of his 19 victims. The fight made no sense, and Khan was knocked out in just 54 seconds. Rubio returned to Miami.
Khan packed his bags and moved to the bad part of Hollywood to train at Freddie Roach's gym, the Wild Card in Los Angeles. The shift in focus worked and the following year Khan won a world title. The Americans liked him, he was a fighter and he was reckless in the ring. "I knew I should have been smarter in fights, but I kept getting involved and I gave people some thrills," said Khan.
In 2011 he lost his title in controversial circumstances in his American opponent's backyard. A rematch collapsed when Lamont Peterson failed a drug test and that really was a terrible setback. I truly believe Khan won the first fight quite comfortably, only making it a close encounter when he got too involved.
In 2012 Khan agreed to fight unbeaten Garcia for a world title and was caught and hurt in a fight he should have won. It was a big fight at the time and many in the sport thought that Khan's fighting days were over.
However, Khan remained at the top level, secured big financial deals and was still an attraction on American and British television. There was bold talk of a fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr., which collapsed in utter acrimony. "Floyd agreed the fight and then went back on it," said Khan at the time. "I was a bad choice for him and he knew it."
The collapse of the potential Mayweather bout in 2015 left Khan desperate for a big fight. He was a star in many ways, but his inactivity and apparent reluctance to fight domestic rival, Kell Brook, angered fans and upset some in the boxing business. Khan has never been reluctant to fight anybody, he just believed that he had other deals in place.
In 2016 he shocked many when he jumped up two weight categories and agreed a fight at middleweight with Alvarez. It was relatively safe for five rounds, one judge even had Khan in front and then bang, Alvarez connected with a sickening right hand and Khan was down and out. Alvarez immediately dropped to his knees at Khan's side. It was a terrible ending and Khan has not fought since that night in May 2016. It looked like that was his last chance, but Khan has always been resilient and resourceful.
During his career Khan has chopped and changed his trainer no fewer than four times and each new man arrives -- often after a calamity -- with a promise to improve his defence. The latest is Joe Goossen, a Californian veteran, often considered the fighter's trainer because of how involved he gets on fight night. Khan talks about Goossen in reverential terms. "He is showing me so much, watching every single thing that I do," said Khan.
On Saturday it will be Lo Greco's chance to try and land what would be a cruel punch in a fight he knows will change his life. Lo Greco can fight, but he has been expertly selected to launch what is surely the last phase of Khan's career. Khan just has to take his time, relax and it should be relatively straight forward. Unfortunately, Khan has made bigger mistakes in bigger fights and that is why people watch him. A win for Khan means the Brook fight will happen this summer. A defeat would be the very end.