Amir Khan has pledged to fight on despite calls from Carl Froch that defeat to Danny Garcia should send the Briton into retirement.

Khan was knocked down three times on the way to a fourth round stoppage against Garcia, which saw him relinquish the WBA light-welterweight title.

The emphatic defeat follows his controversial loss to Lamont Peterson in December, but Khan, who must go back to the drawing board after his third-career loss says he has no plans to retire.

Amir Khan
Khan has knocked to the canvas three times in Las Vegas.

"I'm not talking about retiring, I'm still young, I've got a lot in me," he said.

"I'm still hungry and I'll come back a lot better and a lot stronger."

"Carl's always got his little things to say and I'll leave it to that really," he added. "If he wants to retire he can retire.

"I'm in a tougher division, I'm fighting better opposition and I'm a bigger name than him. That's what burns him really.

"People are going to say things after this fight, but people said things after the Prescott fight and you see how I came back from there."

After beating Lucian Bute for the IBF super-middleweight crown, Froch has been linked with possible retirement, despite targeting a rematch with Mikkel Kessler.

May's victory has seemingly delayed any thoughts of hanging up his gloves, but Froch does concede had he suffered as humiliating a defeat as Khan, he would have wasted no time in calling time on his career.

"People can say that I have lost twice before, but if I had lost to Bute I would have retired," he said.

"I'm not in this sport to get beat, get knocked out and get outclassed, I'm in this game to be at the top and stay at the very top.

"It's a personal decision to retire but to get stopped in the fourth round after previously being knocked out is very damaging. It's finishing. He has found a level."

Saturday's defeat in Las Vegas mirrored the surprise and the brutality of Khan's first professional defeat at the hands of Columbian Breidis Prescott; another unknown quantity who stunned the Olympic silver medallist early on in his 19th bout.

While the loss hands Khan a record of 26 wins and three defeats, it also puts any plans of fighting Floyd Mayweather on the back burner, and he now insists he'll remain at light-welterweight for one more fight before moving up.

"It's put things back," he added. "I made 140lb very comfortably this time and I think it will be ideal for me to stay maybe one more fight - if I can win the title and then move up to 147lb. No rush.

"People believe 'Amir should be moving up, doing this, doing that'. People forget how old I am. I'm still young and there's a lot I need to work on before I do move up to the next division.

"We're going to try for the rematch. I don't know if they're going to take it, but if we can get that in England it will be amazing."