By Matt Stein: With his total destruction by Breidis Prescott in September, lightweight Amir Khan (19-1, 15 KOs) appears to have his work cut out for him if he wants to someday win a major title in the lightweight division. His loss to Prescott, a 1st round TKO, dropped Khan from the top rungs of the division to the bottom, where he now is trying to rebuild his shattered career.
A former Silver Medal winner in the 2004 Olympics, Khan seemed destined to win a title in the professional game, but now that’s not so certain. In search of the fight trainer, Khan has gone through multiple trainers in his pursuit of a good mentor for him.
Now with Freddie Roach, the famous American trainer who currently trains Manny Pacquiao, it seems as if Khan may have finally found the perfect fit him. However, even with Roach training him it’s uncertain whether he can fix Khan’s weak chin, and make him less vulnerable to bit punchers like Prescott.
Khan, 22, already has excellent skills, great hand speed, superb movement and a killer instinct in the ring. The only thing that appears to be missing is his ability to take a good punch. Sadly, his chin has been exposed in knockdowns against less than impressive punchers, like Willie Limond and Michael Gomez, which begs the question: will Khan’s chin ever be good enough to stand up to the top fighters in the lightweight division?
At the end of the day, it may not matter how much skills that Khan possesses, because if he can’t take a major hit to the jaw, then he will never be able to beat the likes of Nate Campbell, Pacquiao, Edwin Valero, Juan Diaz and Joel Casamayor.
Right now, Khan would probably be flattened by each of them before long, even if he were to spend the entire fight running and staying on the outside. At some point in time, he has to be able to stand his ground and have a good enough chin to take the give and take of a hard boxing match.
His height, 5’11”, is a clear asset for him, but not necessarily something that equals victory as we saw in his fight with the equally tall Prescott. There are plenty of other tall fighters in the lightweight division besides Prescott who can flat out punch, and if Khan thinks that he can use his height and reach to prevent getting tagged on the jaw on occasion, then he’s sadly mistaken.
The fact of the matter is, in the lightweight division, the fighters are very fast, punch very hard and in order to stay on top in this division one has to be able to take a certain amount of punishment without folding up. Khan, as of now, doesn’t appear to be up to the mark and is more of a talented but flawed prospect.
Like a fastball pitcher who will never be able to throw it consistently over the plate, Khan may end up being a career fighter that looks good from time to time against good opposition, but then is sparked out in big fights against proven sluggers.
He probably never will be able to stand in with the big punchers in the division like Prescott without being mowed down, but he might be good enough to stay in the mix for a long time, get a championship opportunities in his career, and pull off an occasional upset.
Who knows? He may even get a stronger chin at some point in his career, although I tend to doubt it. Usually, a fighter’s ability to take a punch decreases rather than increases as they age. However in the case of George Foreman, he in fact improved as he got older in his ability to take heavy shots, but he’s a rare case.
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