Amir Khan has an opponent for his second fight of 2018.
Matchroom Boxing announced that Khan will fight Samuel Vargas on September 8 in the main event of a boxing card at the Birmingham Arena.
Khan and Vargas are not fighting for any titles, but promoter Eddie Hearn said he is currently trying to talk with the WBA to make the bout a title eliminator for “regular” welterweight title currently held by Lucas Matthysse. Matthysse is currently scheduled to defend his title against Manny Pacquiao in Malaysia in July. Khan is currently ranked No. 7 in the WBA welterweight rankings while Vargas is ranked No. 10.
The 31-year-old Khan had been inactive for nearly two years since moving up in weight and challenging for Canelo Alvarez’s WBO junior middleweight title in 2016. Khan was knocked out by Alvarez and was out of the ring until this past April when he returned to the ring under a promotional contract with Matchroom Boxing. It took less than a minute for Khan to emerge victorious when he knocked out Phil Lo Greco on April 21.
Vargas is the current WBA-NABA champion and has not lost getting stopped by Danny Garcia in late 2016. Vargas sports a 29-3-2 record and a 4-0-1 record in his last five fights.
Also announced to fight on the card is Sam Eggington, Gamal Yafai and Jason Welburn defending his BBBofC middleweight title against Tommy Langford.
