The newly-unified two-belt light-welterweight champion, looking fresh and his face unmarked in a Mandalay Bay hotel suite high above the Las Vegas strip, also said he believed that opponent Zab Judah had “looked for a way out” in the fifth round instead of being knocked out.
Khan was adamant that the punch which ended the fight to Judah’s midriff had not been below the belt.
“I was glad about the statement HBO made on their broadcast,” said Khan.
“I saw the fight afterwards, and his waistband was well above his waist line. If you work it out, the punch was miles above.”
“I wasn’t worried about being disqualified; you can feel where you have hit. He took a gamble, because in that round he would have got stopped. Every time he was getting hit you could see the frustration in his face. He just kept giving up, making faces.
"He lost hope in the fight, he needed a way out, he saw his chance and he thought that if he went down, people would not say he was knocked out, and that the fight ended controversially.”
“He was not hit below the belt. When you hit someone to the body, you know. You can feel when you hit the cup [protector]. I didn’t feel the cup.”
Khan, after his second fight in Las Vegas, admitted he felt more comfortable. “I’m getting there as a Vegas fighter. I think I made a statement beating him in style.
"They know they get their money’s worth with me. The occasion didn’t get to me this time.”
“When I fought Marcos Maidana [last December] it was the first time I’d seem my name and face on the billboards and in the casino, and I was up against a guy who was game. We took Zab out of his game plan.
Physically, I feel a lot stronger after a good — but painful — camp back with Alex Ariza. You grow with time, too.” Khan admitted that he will stay patient for a contest with Mayweather.
“People are already asking about Floyd. I’m not going to call him out.
I’ve said it’s a fight I would like to have in the future. Everyone has ambition. It’s like Frankie Gavin and these young fighters in Britain calling me out. I want to fight him in the future not tomorrow.”
“I’m proving I’m in that class now. We are not going to jump into it straight away. We want to build the fight up against someone like Mayweather. And when I fight Floyd Mayweather, I don’t want to be a challenger, I want to be on the same level.
"If Manny and Floyd fought they are two champions meeting. I want to be in the same position as that, seen as a top fighter as well.”
American Timothy Bradley, unbeaten in 28 contests, currently holds the other two belts in the light-welterweight division.
“I’d love to fight him, but he needs to come forward and take the fight with me.
"I don’t think he will though, because if he loses to me he won’t get the fight with Mayweather, or Manny Pacquiao, that he is after. Of course I’d like to unify the entire division, because not many fighters do that.”
Khan reasons that he has the frame to move comfortably up a weight division to meet Mayweather. It is a detail Khan’s conditioning coach Ariza is already looking into, and one which Ricky Hatton struggled with when he moved up.
Khan explained: “Ricky was not a big 140-pounder. I’ve got the height advantage. If you stand me next to Ricky, I’m a lot bigger.
"Bigger than Manny Pacquiao, too. In the early days when I was first sparring Manny and fighting at 135 [lightweight], Manny thought I was a welterweight. He could never believe I was a lightweight.”
The resemblance to Pacquiao was plain to see for many on Saturday night in Khan’s performance. “It might have been the gloves because Manny wears the Reyes gloves,” joked Khan.
“We have similar styles. When I watch him train and fight, I see what works for him. We have similar speed, and we gambled a few times with Judah, moving forward, feinting with the feet.
"Things I tried with Manny, I tried last night.”
Khan now goes into Ramadan on Saturday, and will go on holy pilgrimage to Mecca. He is expected to fight again in the United States in December.
