Boxing has never been short on bands of brothers, from the Coopers to the Klitschkos. Amir Khan's younger sibling Haroon is the latest to forge a family link with the fight game, though not everyone in the Khan clan is happy about it.

The 21-year-old recalls how his mother Falak was so distressed at the ringside after witnessing Amir being shockingly KO'd in 54 seconds by Colombian Breidis Prescott in his 19th pro fight that she collapsed and had to be given oxygen.

The next day she asked Haroon to hand her his own amateur boxing kit. "I said 'Thanks mum,' thinking she was going to wash it. But she binned it and told me: 'You're not boxing any more'."

It was only after Amir and their father Shah pleaded with her that she reluctantly relented. "She said I could carry on – but only if I promised to stay amateur."

It is a promise he has been unable to keep, making his professional debut on the undercard of his big brother's 12 round bout against Mexican Julio Diaz at the Motorpoint Arena in Sheffield on Saturday week.

His mother is far from happy at the prospect, especially following the death last week of the boxer Michael Norgrove, the sport's first fatality here in 18 years. "Obviously she is worried, just as I was when I knew I had to break the news about turning pro. She was abroad when I made my mind up and I kept putting off telling her. But in the end my dad insisted I make the call.


"When I told her she pleaded with me and said: 'You don't need to be a boxer. We've already got one in the family'." He had recently done a photo shoot for Selfridges. So she begged him: "Stick to modelling."

"I admit I was in two minds but boxing won. Now, after Michael Norgrove's death she keeps asking me: 'Are you sure you've made the right choice?' I can understand why she doesn't like seeing her sons get hit. This is a dangerous business but like Amir I know the risks.

"I told her 'look what Amir's achieved, if he can do it, so can I. Don't worry, one day you will be as proud of me as you are of him.'

One of the questions I asked Shah Khan after Amir won the 2004 Olympic lightweight boxing silver in Athens was: "Are there any more at home like him?" "Actually yes," he replied. "And he might even be better than Amir one day."

It is a prediction with which Amir himself concurs. "Haroon certainly has the potential. As kids we used to scrap with each other in our front room and he was quite a handful. He has tremendous talent. It just needs to be harnessed and I've told him he has to be totally dedicated, which hasn't always been the case. No messing. This is the hurt business and it's for real."


Once tagged "Baby Khan" he is Amir's little brother in every sense, fighting at super-flyweight (8st 3lb), some two stones lighter, three inches shorter and five years younger than the former world light-welter champion.

He decided to make the switch to the pro ranks – where he will be promoted by his brother's organisation – after the frustrations of an impressive amateur career in which he boxed for England but when overlooked for the Olympic squad in favour of Andrew Selby won a Commonwealth Games flyweight bronze medal representing Pakistan, his father's birthplace – beating world-ranked Selby in the quarterfinals. A shoulder injury robbed him of the chance of representing Pakistan at London 2012.

He had been trained as an amateur by Amir's old Bury club coach Mick Jelley, who says: "Whether he makes it is up to him. He has everything going for him but sometimes he has wanted to play the good life and the good life doesn't work. If he applies himself he'll smash his way through, there'll be no stopping him. The thing is, he's become a man now."

Style wise Haroon, or Harry as he is known, is different to Amir, more of a box-fighter in the Ricky Hatton mould. "An exciting little bugger," says Jelley.

At Jelley's gym in the 80-year-old club whose walls are festooned with cuttings of Amir's achievements, Haroon had started boxing as a precocious nine-year-old going along to watch his brother. He had had his first bout on his eleventh birthday.


Jelley, a retired printer who has devoted his life to the amateur sport, says Haroon soon found there were good things and bad things about being Amir's brother. "Sometimes it's not that he's been beaten but absolutely ripped off after winning hands down. It can be very upsetting. That sort of thing is one of the troubles with amateur boxing. The judging can be so dodgy."

The Khans believe Haroon was the victim of some prejudiced judging, in several of his early bouts, notably soon after Amir turned professional when there was considerable resentment in Amateur Boxing Association of England (ABAE) circles.

"It started a week after Amir turned pro when I beat a kid really comfortably but didn't get the decision," Haroon says. "I was upset about that but I let it pass. I would have liked to emulate Amir and win an Olympic medal but I think my style is better suited to the pro game."

He is an engaging and cheeky young chappy, not short of confidence or chutzpah.

Somewhat surprisingly he is now being schooled in Salford by Oliver Harrison, the first of three trainers fired by Amir. The split was acrimonious but Haroon says: "They still speak and it was Amir who suggested him because he is a great coach to young fighters."

Mrs Khan will not be in Sheffield to see his pro debut against 20-year-old Bulgarian Stefan Slavchev. She has not watched either of her sons fight since that fateful night in Manchester four years ago. Instead, she stays at home literally praying for their safe return.

Haroon acknowledges that the time has come, quite literally, to start making a fist of it.

"Amir has taught me a lot, not only about boxing, but about life. But I won't be so gung-ho as he was. One thing I've learned is that if you go down, don't get up and start trading punches. Stay on the back foot.

"Amir learned from that bad experience and went on to become a world champion. And I'm going to be one too, whatever it takes."

Just don't tell mum.

Alan Hubbard is an award-winning sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Games, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire.