Trainer backing Amir Khan to climb back to the top

Khan split from previous coach Freddie Roach and turned to Hunter last year after his career stalled with back-to-back defeats against Lamont Peterson and Danny Garcia.

Khan began what he hopes is a march back to the top with victory over Carlos Molina last December and he aims to progress further by seeing off Mexican Julio Diaz in Sheffield tonight.

Hunter is confident the 25-year-old former world lightweight champion will regain his lost status. Yet, while he expects Khan to learn from the mistakes he made, he believes other errors were made by the previous regime that surrounded the Bolton fighter.

Hunter said: “When he came to us, we had concerns about his past fights. All you ask for is to learn from mistakes, and he will, but there were mistakes made against him too. He has gone into fights outweighed by 12 or 13 pounds and this is something that shouldn’t have happened. There is no doubt at all he can be world champion again.

Khan takes on Diaz in a non-title bout set at a “catch weight” of  143 pounds, a mark between super lightweight and welterweight. It will  be the heaviest Khan has fought at while California-based Diaz, himself a former world lightweight champion, is coming down slightly after recent  welterweight fights.