Amir Khan was looking for a fight. He found one.
Khan is joining the fight against coronavirus. He is offering to turn a piece of real estate worth about $5.9 million in England into a temporary hospital for people infected by the virus and in need of care.
Khan had planned to turn the property in his hometown of Bolton, near Manchester, into a place for weddings and shopping. It was scheduled to open in August. But that was before the pandemic changed lives and careers.
Khan made the offer on his Twitter account, saying: “I am prepared to give my 60,000 square foot 4 story building which is due to be a wedding hall and retail outlet to the NHSuk (the U.K.’s National Health Service) to help people affected by the coronavirus.
“Please keep safe.”
Boxing has gone dark for the foreseeable future. Khan, a former junior welterweight champion, hasn’t fought since a stoppage of Billy Dibb in July. He had been talking about a bigger fight. Longtime rival Kell Brook had been mentioned as a possibility.
But everything from the Olympics to prizefighting is on the shelf until the pandemic subsides.
“I am aware of how difficult it is for the public to get a hospital bed in this tragic time,’’ Khan said a few days after former stablemate Manny Pacquiao jumped into the coronavirus fight by donating buses, masks and testing kits to medical personnel in the Philippines.