The man, Avdantil Kashia, was sculpted, mean-looking and hairy. Very hairy. Khan himself was still a few months off his first shave and here he was about to have an eight-minute battle with a man who had lived half of his life in a war-zone.
The kid from Bolton had blazed a brilliant trail through the junior ranks and was finally in with the big boys as he sought a place at the 2004 Olympics in Athens.
Khan and his dad Shah had banked everything on three throws of the dice - the three qualifying tournaments for the Games, three of the toughest boxing tournaments in the world.
No longer was Khan mixing it with other fresh-faced boys. He was facing grizzled men from eastern Europe, men who were fighting to give their families a better life.
The European qualifiers are notoriously tough. The break up of the old Soviet Union meant that instead of one Soviet fighter, you now get a host of rock-hard, technically excellent, mature fighters from Russia, Georgia, Armenia, Kazakhstan . . . the list seems endless, especially to a wide-eyed teenager with a bum-fluff moustache.
The Amateur Boxing Association had not wanted their young protege to be hurled into such tempestuous waters, they had one eye on Beijing 2008 for their starlet, and even kept him out of the World Cadet Championship in the summer of 2003, sending him instead to the less-prestigious Junior Olympics in Louisiana.
It turned out to be a tactical mistake, Khan breezed to a gold medal and the best boxer award, wowing the Americans to the extent that the more enthusiastic US officials offered him a green card so he could box for them at the Olympics.
Khan pointed out that at 17 he was not even old enough to box for the British senior title.
The Americans insisted that you could fight in the Olympics at 17 but Great Britain's performance director Ian Irwin poured cold water on the notion.
Possessed
They planned to send him to the World Junior Championships in the summer of 2004 but Khan - possessed by the madness of youth - wanted to fight in both tournaments.
He slipped onto the internet and found the Americans had got it right and that he could fight at the Olympics at 17.
Khan and his dad pressed the ABA to allow him into the qualifying tournaments and the young man stepped up the heat by winning the European Schoolboy Championships without breaking sweat.
As a frustrating stand-off developed, the Khans made it known that Pakistan, the country of Shah's birth, wanted Amir to wear their green and white colours in Athens.
"It was a risk because once a decision like that is made, there is no turning back," said Amir. "I wanted to fight under the Union Jack. I knew I was ready. I had done all I could to show them that and as far as we were concerned the ABA was not being fair to me. Under the circumstances we felt justified in applying pressure."
The ABA, fearful of losing their No 1 prospect, caved in and invited Khan to a senior squad training camp. He was sent to the Adidas Boxing Gala and was the only English boxer to win all three of his contests.
Spurred on by that result the ABA took a chance and chose Khan for the Olympic qualifiers ahead of their own champion Stephen Burke.
The gamble appeared to backfire in the first tournament, the European Senior Championships, in February 2004 when the hairy Kashia had too much ring nouse and picked up the decision.
"I didn't know a thing about him," recalled Khan. "He was big with facial hair and a ripped body and with hairy arms. You could see he was a hard bloke, that he had had a tough life, and was easily 10 years older than me.
"When he drew me out of the hat he thought he was on to a winner straight away. In amateur boxing no-one has much respect for English fighters."
Khan lost a controversial decision, but promised his coaches he would beat Kashia if they ever met again.
Just three months later they did in the Strandja Cup in Bulgaria, as Khan again drew the Georgian in the first round. This time Khan was ready and stormed to victory.
He was on a roll and the momentum took him through the best the East had to offer as an Armenian, a Romanian, and an Azerbaizani fell to his flashing fists.
The gold medal was his and so was a place in the Olympics.
A pre-Olympic tournament in Athens saw Khan run head-first into the legendary Cuban Mario Kindelan in the first round and make a hasty exit.
Khan, proud of his British roots, proud to be a Boltoner, proud of his Pakistani origins, and of his Muslim religion, wanted to win it for all of them. But few took any notice, outside of his Bury gym, his close circle of friends and family, and the local media.
Khan still wanted to go to the World Juniors, just six weeks before Athens, and after getting his way again took the gold medal. But in August 2004, the stakes were raised. Khan flew into the unknown and his life was about to change forever.
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