Amir Khan coming back smarter

Amir Khan says he is coming back from Los Angeles not just a better fighter but a smarter one. After his shock defeat to Breidis Prescott in September, he faces Oisin Fagan at ExCeL in East London on Saturday having been put back together by Freddie Roach at his Wild Card gym in Hollywood.

"When I went there, no one apart from Freddie knew who I was," he said. "When I left, they all knew who I was because the had seen me sparring with Manny Pacquiao.

"I think a lot of people thought, 'he's good, but he's been beaten and he will never be the same'. They put me in with sparring partners who were trying to trying to take my head off. But I never got best in sparring, I beat them up. Even against Manny Pacquiao, it was either an even spar or I got the better of him."

Roach will not be in the corner, but Khan, who turns 22 on Monday, is expecting good things and certainly a ore mature performance.

"I knew if I trained hard in the gym, it's going to be easy for the fight," he said. "I went back to my old style – hitting and moving. In my last few fights I've been sitting down on my shots more, I've been a sitting target.

"I'm smarter now. I did about 70 rounds of sparring. When I got hit, if I went after them someone like Pacquiao would just pick me off. But I learnt to brush it off, take my time and get him back maybe 30 seconds later. It's not a four-round fight, it's a 12-round fight.

"I'm going to be smart, I'm not going to make any mistakes. I'm going to do what I want to do in the fight, I'm not going to listen to the crowd."

Getting away from his own gym into one where he is just another fighter has also helped. It meant he concentrated on his boxing and learnt new things every day.

"In Britain you would go to the gym and you're a superstar, you've got your mates there, there are people who come to watch you train," Khan said. "They build your confidence so high, but in LA, you're just another guy. No one is asking for autographs, no one is asking for pictures. It was all about training hard. I was excited every day, because there was something new every day."