Is Khan Still a Marketable Fighter?

By Boxing News - 09/10/2008 - Comments

khan56276.jpgBy Chris Williams: After last Saturday’s crushing defeated to Breidis Prescott (20-0, 18 KOs), formerly unbeaten Amir Khan (18-1, 14 KOs) may find himself not only starting all over again from the drawing board, but he also may be no longer marketable with the boxing public. The loss, a crushing 1st round knockout, left no doubt that Khan wasn’t in the class of the power-punching Colombian and left Khan’s once promising career literally in tatters. Even though Khan is probably young enough to rebuild his career many times over at the age of 21, his weak chin leaves a lot of doubts whether he’ll be able to accomplish that goal with any real degree of success.

After all, it wasn’t as if this was the first time that Khan found himself planted on the canvas. This time, though, he wasn’t able to escape with a victory because Prescott, with a series of devastating left hooks, had hurt him far too badly for him to recover enough to make it out of the 1st round. If Khan had at least fought competitively for a moment in the fight, there would at least be some small string of hope that the boxing public could cling to try and excuse the loss away and a see a better future for him.

However, he was thoroughly blasted out in a one-sided fight by Prescott, leaving no doubt who the better fighter was. It’s doubtful Khan will even try to gain revenge for the fight. This means that Khan will, once again, be served up with a long seemingly endless string of third rate fighters designed to make Khan look good.

It won’t erase the memory of this defeat, however, because no matter how many low quality fighters that Khan fights in the next couple of years, the memory of him being taken out in the 1st round will remain with him despite his efforts to move on from the defeat. Forget about Khan being PPV material, that’s not happening. Obviously, his pay will likely be scaled way back after this defeat, because there’s less appeal for a fighter with a loss on his record, especially when it was one so decisive.

Maybe if there weren’t any prior indications of Khan having a problem taking big shots, there would be more to look forward to in the future for him, but that’s not the case with him. Where does a fighter go when they can’t take a hard shot? Learning how to defend himself properly is a good start. Staying away from big hitters is another thing for Khan to do as well to avoid a repeat performance like last Saturday. Even with the best airtight defense, though, sooner or later Khan is going to get hit flush again by someone, and it’s questionable at this point whether he’ll be able to take it without dropping for the 10 count once again.

That said, I doubt he’ll have much problems with the easy fodder his handlers with serve up to him for the next couple of years, but that will be like hiding his head in a foxhole, hoping the problem will go away over time. It won’t, I’m afraid. Khan will likely be just as vulnerable in the coming years as he is now to a big punch, and he’ll be like so many other fighters with eye-pleasing boxing skills who can’t take a big shot.

Although I think he might be able to make a good living while mostly fighting C-class fighters, because already has a big name in the sport, but nowhere near what he was before. At the same time, those that come to see him fight will have to be content to see him fighting exclusively soft opposition, for if he’s put in with a tough opponent like Juan Diaz or Prescott, we’ll probably see a repeat performance like last Saturday.

So, in effect, he’ll be the equivalent of once promising race horse that is now only used to race exhibition matches against lesser thoroughbreds. Marketable? Sure, but not nearly to the extent that he once was.



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