Khan-kindelan Rematch Must Take Place

If the English Amateur Boxing Association scuppers the chances of Amir Khan fighting the Olympic champion Mario Kindelan in a fund-raising show in aid of the amateur club where Khan learnt to box, it would be a crying shame.

Perhaps some noses are being put out of joint by Khan's impending move to the professional ranks but the English ABA must surely recognise the huge surge of positive publicity given to boxing by Khan's Olympic success, which culminated in a silver medal for him, at the age of only 17, in the lightweight division where the Cuban Kindelan was the winner of the gold.

The Cuban team, including Kindelan, is due to compete in a Four Nations tournament in Liverpool on April 8 and Khan has already said he will not be fighting for England. Instead he will fight on a bill at the Reebok Stadium, Bolton, on April 16 to raise money for Bury ABA.

The promoter Frank Warren is lobbying for Kindelan to face Khan on the second date in what would be a fascinating rematch of the Olympic final.

For too many years there has been a needless mutual suspicion in British boxing between professional and amateur ranks. But the sport is in more than enough trouble and there is no sense in allowing the old enmities to resurface now. The Four Nations, to be televised by the BBC, will attract a guaranteed sell-out crowd at Liverpool Olympia and a decent TV audience, even without Khan.

The following week's Reebok Stadium bill, to be broadcast by Sky, would be another considerable attraction for boxing fans, especially if the brilliant Kindelan were to be there trying to make it three wins out of three against Khan.

The American promoter Don King has long adhered to the old PT Barnum philo sophy that "any publicity is good publicity, just remember my name" and the English ABA might profitably learn a trick or two from a man it perhaps considers as the antithesis of everything for which it stands.

It should realise that its sport needs as many positive headlines as it can get and that blocking a Khan-Kindelan match, for whatever reason, is simply counter-productive to its long-term aims and the good of boxing.