He did catch me with some good shots. Carlos is a tough, tough fighter. I caught him with some good, clean shots and he still came forward. That's when I decided I'd better stick to my gameplan. It's a 12-round fight, not a one-round fight, so I'm going to compose myself.
I'm getting better as a fighter. Virgil is teaching me how to be patient, how to understand boxing. I used to be wild. I used to go in with 100mph combinations. I get too ballsy for my own good. But now, with Virgil, I'm sticking to the gameplan, sticking behind that jab and taking my time. I know I made mistakes. I'm my own biggest critic.
If I was fighting Danny Garcia today, I'd have knocked him out. That's the God's honest truth. He was lucky. He caught me with a good shot. I'm ready for Danny Garcia any time. Any time, anywhere, any place.
Garcia is at ringside. He does not look entirely convinced of Khan's argument. Somebody get those two back in a ring.
05.50 Mission accomplished for Khan, who faced all manner of grisly scenarios tonight, yet ends up with his reputation restored and his path back to the top intact. Garcia wasn't the toughest nut to crack, but the way in which Khan picked him apart did hint that there's a good deal of fight left in him yet.
AMIR KHAN BEATS CARLOS MOLINA BY 10TH ROUND TKO
ROUND TEN
The blood is not just streaming down Molina's face, but splashing onto his neck and shoulders. But once again, here he comes, two parts bravado to one part futility. He steps forward with the straight right, and Khan picks him off with the right jab. Molina responds well with a combination to the body. Virgil Hunter's still unleashing a constant stream of invective at ringside, and Khan tightens up, throwing three stiff left jabs in a row. Molina lands with a left hand, and this has been a better round for him. But he's not hurting Khan, whereas every time Khan goes on the offensive, he looks like tearing Molina a new tear duct. Referee Jack Reiss walks over to Molina's corner... and calls it a day! It's all over!
ROUND NINE
Molina's face really is a sight. He's been patched up a little in between rounds, but they're cuts men, not magicians. Khan is simply out-boxing Molina here, and sends him careering into the ropes with another fine combination. Molina's beginning to feel his legs now, as well as everything else, and Khan really could make a statement by finishing this now. Molina catches him with a left jab, but Khan reponds well with a vicious right hook to the kidneys. Jab, jab, bang. Jab, jab, kabosh. Khan's picking him off at will, and all Molina can do is blink, breathe, swallow, and get in position to receive the next blow. Molina stumbles wearily to his corner. His face is passata. The referee walks over to his corner and says: "You've got to show something right away, or I'm stopping it in the middle of the round." Last rites for Molina. Khan's barely got a scratch on him.
ROUND EIGHT
Khan lets Molina see his chin for a split second, and Molina manages to get a left upper-cut through, sending Khan back half a yard. The old Khan might have seen the red mist descending, might have charged forward and stepped straight into another. Instead, Khan simply regains his footing and recovers his poise. Back he comes with a solid left hook, and then another left to the body, and for every shot Molina is landing, Khan is landing five. Molina's left eye is beginning to close on him just a fraction. There's not a lot left of him.
ROUND SEVEN
Khan's got a strut to him now, striding around the ring like a man utterly in control of the fight. Molina's managed to get the odd shot through, but there's been no indication so far that he can get inside, past Khan's lethal flurries, for long enough to do the sort of damage that would get him back into this fight. Khan's kept him at bay very well so far, and another right-left combination secures him yet another round. Khan doesn't look too fussed about putting Molina on the floor here. He wants to give us a demonstration, and it's been a pretty impressive one so far.
ROUND SIX
A round of solid consolidation for Khan, reining himself in just a fraction as Virgil Hunter barks a ceaseless stream of instructions at him. With 30 seconds to go, Khan sidesteps a Molina jab and unleashes another lightning combination that Molina does very well indeed to withstand. Credit to the American; a better puncher than him might have caused Khan a few more problems thus far, but a less resolute fighter would have been staring at the ceiling by now.
ROUND FIVE
Molina finds a right to Khan's body. And now Molina gets through with the left hand! Khan blinks, and the crowd roars. Molina's certainly got enough about him to make Khan work for this, but as Molina comes forward to try and capitalise, Khan keeps him at bay with the jab and does some more discreet work on that cut. Tough round to call, that, but Molina's certainly going to behind on all the cards.
ROUND FOUR
Big effort from Khan here! A solid left-right forces Molina to drop the gloves for a split second, and Khan moves in with one of those fearsome flurries that sends Molina backpedalling into the ropes. Khan's getting through with increasing regularity, and as long as he can stay alert for the counter, Khan should be able to press this advantage home. Molina's cut is really beginning to open up now, but he's managed to stay in there, throw a couple of decent rights of his own, and makes it to the end of the round. Huge round for Khan, though, and the doctor will be taking a close look at Molina's cut.
ROUND THREE
Molina beats Khan to the punch there, spotting Khan's wind-up and getting a stiff jab in first. Khan responds with a well-judged combination, and both fighters appear to have settled into this one. Molina's certainly made of sterner stuff than the first round would suggest, and Khan hasn't been able to give that cut over Molina's left eye much of a working over. Molina comes forward and presses Khan into the ropes; the two trade shots for a while. This is the sort of fight Khan doesn't want to be getting into. Too often he's content to just stand up and trade, and his left cheek is beginning to puff up a little.
ROUND TWO
Molina's made his modest name as a counter-puncher, but he's trying to come forward a little more at the start of the round. He was getting picked off too easily in those first three minutes. But Khan, looking as sharp as he's ever looked, throws a powerful left to the body. Now a straight right to the body, and then again to the head, and Molina did well not to flinch there. And then Khan drops his left and gets caught! Molina counters with a right hook, and Khan stumbles! That's a real warning for him, as a bigger puncher would surely have put him down there. As it is, Khan keeps his chin down and responds with a punishing straight right. Encouraging comeback for Molina, but I still give that round to Khan.
ROUND ONE
Khan misses with one of his classic flurries, Molina ducking out of the way and aiming a left hook to the body. But this is a strong start by Khan, full of sinister intent, and Molina's bleeding already! He's marked above the left eye! Khan follows up with a fusillade of left jabs, backing Molina into the corner. Molina tries to respond with a sharp straight right, but Khan's too quick for him. More fierce jabs to that blood-stained left cheek, and Molina's corner have a real job on their hands now. Superb start by Khan.
05.07 That's the bell! Fight! Fight! Fight!
05.06 "IT'S... SHOWTIME!" shouts announcer Jimmy Lennon. There's an indication of how far Khan has fallen. He doesn't even get the 'ready to rumble' guy any more.
05.03 A smattering of Union flags as Khan strides out, flanked by his newly slimmed-down entourage. He's in a blue dressing gown with yellow trim.
05.00 Here comes Carlos Molina, local boy, coming out to a traditional Mexican song. Could be a big night for him. On the evidence of the pre-fight press conference, he seems to possess a quality all-too-rare in the middle echelons of professional boxing - level-headedness. A win tonight would propel him into the super league.
04.55 The final undercard fight has finally concluded, with heavyweight Deontay Wilder knocking out Kelvin Price in round three. Could be Tyson Fury or David Price up next for a former sparring partner of Audley Harrison's. Right, we're minutes away from showtime.
04.45 OK, so Sky Sports assured us that Khan's ring walk would be at 4.25am. Then again, this is boxing, so of course they're running late.
04.40 Haroon Khan has tweeted a picture of the team just before leaving the hotel...
04.30 Predictions? "Any unbeaten fighter will be game," writes our boxing correspondent Gareth A Davies, "but it is hard to see beyond Khan winning by a wide points decision or, more likely, a stoppage around the seventh or eighth round." That tallies with Ricky Hatton's prediction.
I'm going to be slightly more optimistic. Molina may be unbeaten, but has a distinct lack of big-name scalps on his record. He's a lightweight moving up to 140lbs to face one of the best fighters in the division. He does the simple things well, moves sharply enough and has a decent range of shots, but he lacks the power punch that can really trouble Khan, and it's hard to identify one area in which he can outdo his opponent. Frank Warren goes further still, writing in his Sun column that Molina "couldn't break an egg".
I'm going to have to disagree there. I'm fairly sure Carlos Molina can break an egg, if he really puts his mind to it. Still, I go for Khan in five.
04.15 Danny Garcia and his father Angel, who got under Khan's skin with his constant taunting in the build-up to their fight in July, are both in the arena tonight. Angel, it has been rumoured, will be in Molina's corner. With Freddie Roach also there, the ghosts of Christmas past will haunt Khan tonight.
04.00 Morning, everyone. In around half an hour, Amir Khans faces his fate. This will be his reckoning, his soapbox, his chance to walk tall once more. After two successive defeats against Lamont Peterson and Danny Garcia, Khan is now fighting for survival, fighting for his name. The king is currently without a throne.
In his way stands Carlos Molina: a bright but limited opponent who Khan will expect to brush aside. A Khan defeat - unthinkable, surely? - would be seen as evidence of a terminal decline, of a fundamental fallibility that will forever keep him from the biggest prizes. It's hard to believe that just a year ago, Khan was being talked of as a potential suitor for Floyd Mayweather, his partnership with Freddie Roach one of the most productive in the sport, his rise seemingly inexorable.
The months since then have been, in Khan's own words, the worst of his life. Mysterious officials and suspicious scorecards, a shocking but not wholly surprising defeat to Garcia, followed by his estrangement from Roach after tiring of being shared with Manny Pacquiao. Virgil Hunter, the new man in Khan's corner, is a tutor rather than a life coach; a trainer who prizes the simple things in boxing - a rock-solid defensive technique; nimble feet; sound strategy.
"He [Khan] has to be aware of a few things that I don't think he was aware of before," Hunter told this website back in October. "It's too late to try to teach him to slip punches. There are several defences that I teach and one in particular I think will be very effective and compliment his offensive style beautifully."
The great imponderable, and what we won't know until Khan sees the whites of Molina's eyes just inches from his own, is what the mental scars of those two chastening defeats will be. The time when a fighter has most to prove is when you can find out the most about him. Will Khan keep his wits about him, or will he try and flail his way back onto the top table? The answer to that question will determine not only this fight, but very possibly the trajectory of Khan's career
Khan's ringwalk is due to begin at about 4.25am, in just under half an hour. Good to have you with us. If you feel so inclined, why not drop us an email?
Tale of the tape
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