Khan waits on new trainer

Amir Khan will in "due course" announce the name of the trainer he hopes is going to mastermind his route back to the top of boxing.

The 25-year-old on Saturday parted company with Freddie Roach, regarded by many as the best trainer in the business, in the wake of damaging defeats to Lamont Petersen and Danny Garcia.

The Bolton fighter revealed the split on his Twitter account in the early hours of this morning, confirming what most had expected to happen since his July 14 loss to Garcia which saw him lose his WBA and WBC light-welterweight titles.

At the time he wrote: "Officially iv left freddie roach. Just spoke to his and had a good professional chat and maybe in the future we work together."

He then teased fans by saying he would announced his next trainer in "10 minutes" before checking himself and changing that to tomorrow morning.

However, in a more considered statement released this evening, the former Olympic gold medallist has thanked Roach and altered his timescale for the appointment of a new corner man.

"After nearly four years together, in which we enjoyed some great success, I part ways with my trainer Freddie Roach," he wrote.

"I would like to thank him for all his hard work and help during this period and express my gratitude to him for the progress he helped bring about whilst I was under him.

"I would also like to thank his team. I loved every minute training in LA at the Wildcard Gym, learning and sparring alongside some truly great fighters and meeting some fantastic people.

"I feel now, however, is the right time in my career to make a fresh change and bring in a new trainer. I'm looking forward, and am excited, about the prospect of working alongside someone new. I will make an announcement in due course of who this will be.

"There are some specific aspects of my game I'm looking to work on and hopefully improve. My next training camp begins in early October and I will have everything in place by then."

Khan may well choose to be trained in England, meaning he will no longer have to make regular trips to Los Angeles or to the Philippines, where Roach trains Manny Pacquiao, the world's best pound-for-found fighter.

He will also be looking for a fresh impetus given the backward steps he has taken over the last year.

He lost to Petersen in Washington last December, although the result was eventually overturned owing to the American's failed drugs test, and was then sensationally stopped in the fourth round by the largely unknown Garcia when the pair met two months ago.

Khan said in the aftermath of that loss that he was eager to remain with Roach, who is widely credited for getting Khan's career back on track following his surprise loss to Bredis Prescott in September 2008.

A sticking point came, though, with Khan thought to be wanting Roach to focus fully on him in pre-fight camps, rather than the rest of his stable.

Roach admitted as much in his assessment of what had happened, telling ESPN.com: "He (Khan) said 'I know you're busy with your other fighters and I'm going to go in a different direction'.

"He said 'No hard feelings, maybe we'll get back together some day'. He was being nice. I wished him luck. I've been fired before."