By Jeff Powell For Mailonline
Published: 07:07 BST, 19 April 2019 | Updated: 07:11 BST, 19 April 2019
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Amir Khan answered the pointed question with the lightning speed of his punches.
Why, at 32 with a reputed £30 million fortune in the bank and all these years after he last held a world title, is he still risking his life by chasing rainbows in a championship fight he is supposed to have no chance of winning?
'This,' he says while jabbing a finger at his face beaming down from a giant screen in Times Square. 'The excitement.'
The prospect of facing Terence Crawford holds no fear for Amir Khan ahead of their showdown at Madison Square Garden in New York on Saturday night
Few give Khan much chance against welterweight champion Crawford but he begs to differ
But the greatest thrill of all comes with the battle itself: 'I love the adrenaline rush just before a fight. The switch flicks as I leave the dressing room. There's nothing like this buzz. Nothing.
'It's such a turn on. So much so that as soon as its over and I'm back in the dressing room I want to go back out and do it all again.'
No fear, then? Even though he has suffered a couple of the scariest knock-outs of recent ring times and this Saturday night, in the menacing figure of world welterweight champion Terence Crawford, confronts one of the two best pound-for-pound fighters in the world.
'No fear,' says Khan. 'What we do in this game is go out to hurt each other and we both know that one punch could change your life. I'm a natural born fighter.
'I was the mad one of the family. My brothers and sisters went to school but I was hyperactive. Full of energy. Misbehaving. None of my relatives is as tough as me.
'I was always fearless. Never scared of anything. Maybe I was born too brave. But I come from a warrior caste