One of the key lessons of the US Counterinsurgency doctrine published under General Petreaus in 2006 is that success in counterinsurgency operations requires much more than military success. There are plenty of cases in the history of insurgencies in which the side that won the military victory still lost the war.

Little over a year ago, Amir Khan's world lay in ruins.

The Olympic silver medalist himself sat in a forlorn heap in a neutral corner of the ring at Manchester's MEN Arena, put there inside a minute after a brutal clubbing at the hands of Colombian Breidis Prescott.

Across the ring, unheralded Cuban coach Jorge Rubio could be seen clapping, presumably urging Khan to get to his feet, while the thousands at ringside and many more watching at home, sat their motionless, stunned by what they had seen.