Why did it go so wrong for Amir Khan?

By Boxing News - 09/09/2008 - Comments

khan453467.jpgBy Jonathan Watkins: Amir Khan’s undefeated record has now become a thing of the past, his aspirations of becoming a world champion have been put firmly on hold and now the rebuilding of his career must take place. On Saturday September 6th, Manchester’s MEN arena, along with many unsatisfied pay-per-view fans, witnessed an embarrassing defeat for Khan at the hands of Columbia’s Breidis Prescott.

The truth is I was debating whether to watch the fight in the first place. For Khan to be on box office at this stage of his career was a bad move. His fights were entertaining as he was showing great skill in his hand-speed and attacking abilities, but his opponents seemed hand picked in order to protect the British fighter and increase his popularity. I would also like to add that I certainly wasn’t further tempted with the fact Audley Harrison was fighting on the undercard, but I won’t go into my thoughts on that boxer, if that’s what you wish to call him.

Khan’s choice of opponent was criticised prior to the fight, with most saying that Prescott had not proven himself due to the calibre of his previous opponents. Well, he has undoubtedly silenced those critics now. Those who predicted a comfortable win for Khan must now put their hands up and admit they were wrong.

After the hype about Khan’s new defensive coach Jorge Rubio, nothing had changed in Khan’s style; he had no guard and his approach to the big hitting Columbian was foolish. Within 30 seconds, an off target uppercut from Khan not only left him open, but as he rolled away he ducked his head whilst dropping his right hand, leaving himself off balance and vulnerable. Prescott pounced on Khan’s mistake landing a left hook, sending Khan stumbling backwards, his legs looked like jelly, and it was almost a miracle that he was still standing.

Then I feel his inexperience showed, instead of backing away and trying to recover, or at least taking a defensive stance, Khan tried to throw a blind combination of his own, leading to another left hook from Prescott resulting in Khan hitting the canvas. When Khan did get up he was dazed and hurt, he approached Prescott confidently as if to show he was unfazed, but Khan was out of this battle. Eventually a devastating left hook to an open right side of Khan’s face sent him down and out. The fight was over in 52 seconds, and within that time Khan had shown nothing apart from his vulnerabilities.

Now post-fight the excuses have been vast. Frank Warren declared the bout to be a mismatch, and looked to Jorge Rubio as a scapegoat. He claimed it was Rubio who picked Prescott as Khans opponent ‘I was a bit nervous before the match. I did take the recommendation from Rubio and I should not have.” I know he is protecting his fighter, but come on Frank, you know to be the best you have to be ready to fight anyone, and the sign of a great fighter is one who can adapt himself in order to overcome another fighters strengths.

However, I’m not saying Khan’s career is over; in fact far from it, but his high aspirations will have to be put on hold for a while, whilst he recovers from the repercussions of this loss. Khan is a decent fighter, who still has a bright future, and I do believe that if Khan had the right game plan he could have overcome Prescott. His speed and agility should have caused the Columbian problems, but instead inexperience prevailed, and his openness made him a sitting target for the hammer blow that was Prescott’s left hook. At 21 years of age, Khan is still young and learning, this is the time where mistakes are correctable and weaknesses can be overturned. If this partnership with Jorge Rubio isn’t going to work its better he knows now and finds someone else than suffering another set back.

The thing that baffles me is that Khan has had plenty of time to study Prescott and train for the fight, so did he not notice that Prescott had so much power behind him, and that he’d knocked out 17 of his 19 opponents? If he did then what was he doing going after Prescott in such an attacking way and opening himself up to such devastating blows. One thing is for sure, Khan and Rubio got it wrong this time, and it’s hard to say if the two will stay together and get another chance to do it right. In under a minute Khan’s weaknesses were exposed to the world and he now faces an uphill battle to try and establish a pursuit of a world title. The strength of Khans chin had come under the spotlight after his previous fights against Willie Limond and Michael Gomez and now the devastating hooks from the Columbian will have shaken Khan’s confidence drastically.

A poor performance to say the least, from an allegedly a new Amir Khan loaded with an imperishable defence. If Khan wants to get to the top, there will be many more Prescotts on the way, and most will be even better. He needs to learn from this, take some time to analyse his weaknesses and overcome them. After previously claiming he wanted to challenge the likes of Manny Pacquiao for a world title, such dreams now seem to be a distant fantasy.



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