Amir Khan reflects on 'wonderful' career

Amir Khan believes the time was right for him to retire from boxing. 

The former Olympian and world champion announced on Friday that he was bringing the curtain down on his 17-year professional boxing career following a loss to British rival Kell Brook in February. 

Khan ends his career with a 34-6 record and revealed in an interview with Sky Sports the decision to retire was made a few weeks ago. 

"It was a couple of weeks ago," Khan responded when asked about when the decision to retire was made. 

"Even before the last fight against Kell [Brook], my family were saying I should call it a day, and that I'd done everything I wanted to.

"I'd fought all around the world, against the biggest names in boxing, achieved many world titles. And it was in the back of my mind even before taking the last fight.

"But after it, I could feel that my love for the sport just wasn't there anymore, and I decided I was going to call it a day but didn't know when to announce it.

"That was a part of me that still wanted to do boxing and be part of it, but I just had to announce it."

Khan then spoke about how difficult it was to walk away from the sport despite calls from his family to hang up the gloves. 

It feels quite funny really because boxing is something I've done all my life, and I'm so attached to it that I am going to miss it.

"I've had a brilliant career. My family told me a long time ago to retire, but I said: 'No, I want to do a bit more'. it's just hard to walk away from the sport. But I think it's the right time to walk away now.

"Boxing has been brilliant for me. I thank all the fans, my trainers and coaches, my boxing family. It's all I've known and it's been wonderful.

"Since coming out of the Olympic Games at the age of 17, boxing changed my life and gave me a great platform."

When some fighters retire, they can often feel lost without the routine of training and preparing for big fight, but for Khan, he feels happy and content about his career inside the ring. 

"Luckily, I'm one of those fighters that can walk out happy and content," Khan said. 

"Life totally changed [after the 2004 Olympics], but in a good way. It never got to my head, I always kept my feet on the ground.

"I can only thank boxing for what it's done for my life.

"Honestly, I don't know where I would be in life, and what boxing did for me was keep me on a straight path, and made me a better person."