Amir Khan confident new trainer Virgil Hunter will transform his fortunes

Amir Khan is targeting a return to the boxing basics under new trainer Virgil Hunter ahead of his first fight since splitting from Freddie Roach.

The 25-year-old from Bolton also confirmed he had spoken to several trainers, including Floyd Mayweather Snr, but was comfortable with Hunter and felt he was the right man to progress his career. "I spoke to Virgil and the first thing I said to him was that you have Andre Ward and I hope you are not going to be busy like Freddie was with Manny Pacquiao and I do get 100 per cent of your time," he said. "He made it clear he is going to be with me 100 per cent and whenever I need him he is going to be there - he wants a fighter/trainer relationship where we speak together and get on well together."

Knowledge

Following defeats to Lamont Peterson and Danny Garcia Khan is all-too-aware that he is far from the finished article inside the ring and is ready to utilise the knowledge of his new coach. He said: "I'm still not 100 per cent, I've still got room for improvement and it is maybe going back to the basics and looking at where I make mistakes and improving them. "I'm an offensive fighter and I need my trainer to teach me the defensive part of training whilst at the same time remaining as offensively good. "So that is what we are going to be working on, we know exactly what we have to do. We have never really had a defence if you think about it." Olympic silver medallist Khan is confident he can reclaim a world title within the next 12 months and is hopeful his legions of fans will continue to support him. He said: "It is an ideal fight for us, we have to win this fight to come back and be right at the top. "I can promise you next year we will fight for a world title and win a world title and become a world champion again. "I hope the UK fans turn up, I'm sure Molina is going to bring a big fanbase and I'm sure my UK fans plus my American fans are going to turn up and we will make sure we finish the year with a bang."