Will Khan Ever Be Ready to Fight Marquez?
April 23rd, 2009
By Chris Williams: I found it amusing to listen to lightweight contender Amir Khan’s excuses that he made on Steve Bunce’s Boxing Hour program, saying that he didn’t want to fight Juan Manuel Marquez (50-4-1, 37 KOs) at this point because “I’m not at my peak yet.” I thought I was going to lose my breakfast when I heard Khan say that. I wonder if Khan believes what he says.
If he plays his cards right, Khan can effectively wait him out until old age sets in and then Amir can fight him at the end of his career like Khan did with Marco Antonio Barrera. It isn’t exactly sporting, but what the heck, a win is a win, right?
Instead of fighting Marquez, Khan will be moving up to super lightweight to go after a soft target in WBA champion Andriy Kotelnik on June 27th at the O2 Arena (Millenium Dome), in Greenwich, London.
Tags: 10 Responses to “Will Khan Ever Be Ready to Fight Marquez?”
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Give Kahn a break yea righto!!!!! there are two many fighters cherry picking fights to scared of losing . Boxing should be all about courage the fans spot this weakness from Kahns camp as they did with fraudly Harrison the papers/fans will eventually turn on him. We still dont know how good u really are SHOW US
Chris Williams,
Give the guy a break, don’t let the British hype machine cloud your perception of him. He’s clearly not a world class fighter (yet), certainly not at the level to be even mentioned as a possible opponent for the legend Marquez. So when he states he’s not ready to be put in the ring with the Mexican (which anyone with a single brain cell will agree), you slate him for it?
Has anyone thought would Marquez want to fight Khan? I dont think he would. Well why would he? He has a chane to fight people like Mayweather, Pacman (again) and many other bigger names who would bring in more money.
Khan is young give him a chance!! he’s quick and has some good power.
Calzaghe fought for the vacant WBO title in his 23rd fight.
Ricky Hatton fought for the WBU title on his 23rd fight.
David Haye fought for the WBC and WBA titles in his 20th fight, unified the division when he fought for the WBO in his 21st and is now challenging for the IBF and WBO in his 23rd fight.
Age is irrelevant, really, Tyson was a world champ at 19. Khan just doesnt want to fight the hard fights, pure and simple.
Fair play to him for admitting he isnt ready to fight the best in the Lightweight division yet, but why is he ready to fight a title holder in a higher division?
Money.
I do hope this is the start of the humility I asked from him in the previous Khan article.
Fighters shouldnt have to be at their peak to justify fighting a better fighter. Khan would have more fans in the UK if he was actually willing to say that he wants to fight against the big names, rather than dodge and duck them for his whole career. I would think more of khan if he fought fighters like marquez now and got beat, rather than take easier options. Boxing fans want to see fighting spirit and bottle, not be bored to tears watching mismatches…
TBH i think marquez could beat khan in 3 years unless his chin gets better. Marquez is a fantastic boxer can take and dish out a lot of puninshment and is highly skilled. I think khan is going to wait till he retires and forget about him because i would bet my house that he would lose.
Good point Rex, Kahn has recieved the hype and buil up since his first fight that most professionals dont recieve until they are in their mid-late 20′s. People are forgetting Khan is still a kid and any kid with 22 fights under their belt would be foolish to go for the best in their division.
I think Khan is a real talent. Yeah he got ko’d but it appears he learned from it. Freddie Roach appears to be a good match at trainer. I saw clips of him sparing with Pacman and he looks great.
You also have to consider that his(KHAN) is only 22 years old and surely his not in his peak yet, even Juan Manuel when he was at that age haven’t fought a great fighter. just wait until he turns 25 then I’m pretty sure that he’ll be ready by then.
it’s a joke how man fighters pick and choose their cherry opponents, never really facing quality opposition while in prime. khan had his ass handed to him by a prime prescott just like barrera did to hamed years ago….