Khan won the fight by UD, with scores of 119–108, 119–109 and 118–110. Khan knocked Vargas twice in the fight in dropping him in round two and three. Vargas dropped Khan once in round three. Khan fought well in round five in landing a lot of fast combinations to the head of Vargas, who suffered a nose injury. Vargas took the punishment and showed a lot of heart as he kept coming forward. Midway through the fight, Khan began to slow down and showed fatigue. He began to pick his combinations rather than just throw a flurry. Vargas focused mostly on the body attack for the fight. He managed to have Khan in trouble as he pinned him against the ropes, most notably in rounds six and ten. After the fight, Khan said, "I really wanted to go the distance. It's been three years since I went twelve rounds. There were a couple of times when I could have stopped him and I kind of stepped off him." Khan called for a fight against former sparring partner Manny Pacquiao and Eddie Hearn said it was 'now or never' for a Kell Brook fight. According to CompuBox stats, Khan landed 199 punches of 581 thrown (35%) and Vargas was credited with landing 142 of his 535 thrown (27%). Vargas landed 100 shots to Khan's body, 91 being power punches. Hearn announced that the fight set a viewership record, for the biggest live audience on UK subscription television in boxing history. Khan vs. Crawford On 9 December 2018, it was reported that Top Rank had offered Khan a guaranteed $5 million purse, plus a percentage of PPV revenue, to fight Terence Crawford on 23 March 2019 at Madison Square Garden in New York. The fight was made official in January 2019, and it was set to take place at Madison Square Garden on 20 April. The fight would be broadcast live on ESPN PPV; UK broadcasting rights were later acquired by BT Sport Box Office. Khan, commenting on facing Crawford rather than long-time domestic rival Brook, believed winning a world title against a consensus pound-for-pound boxer would be a bigger achievement than defeating Brook. He also believed that win or lose against Crawford, the Brook opportunity would still be available. Khan returned to veteran trainer Virgil Hunter for the Crawford bout. Hunter was unable to train Khan for his previous two bouts