Khan-Salita: Amir Will Stop Dmitriy

By Peter Wells: Amir Khan defends his WBA Light Welterweight title next weekend I Newcastle against unbeaten but untested Dmitriy Salita. Salita has only been 12 rounds once and has no punch, so won’t trouble Khan’s suspect chin. You can see it was a clever defence by Amir, don’t dive in the deep end straight away, and he could be saved from Maidana as he has been linked with a fight against WBC titleholder Devon Alexander. A unification fight with the winner of Maidana-Alexander would be very interesting, but a long shot away yet. We all no this fight should not be on box office and I would never pay to watch a fight like this, I’ll just watch it on the computer the next day. Khan has no challenge here and this is how I reckon the fight will unfold:

Round 1- Khan starts slow stays on his toes, guard high and chin down. Salita will get through with a few jabs and Khan will fire back and maybe put in a few one-twos. Khan catches Salita late in the round, as Dmitriy comes in firing.

10-9 Khan

Round 2- Khan speeds things up a bit moving out the way as Salita tries to fire away. Khan shakes Salita again from the outside with his long right hand. Khan gets caught on the ropes but slips away before any serious damage is done.

10-9 Khan

Round 3- Salita tries to unload early but is caught with an uppercut as Khan jogs away. Salita realises opening up with big shots wont work as he can’t expose Amir’s glass chin. Salita tries to walk Khan down, but Amir is just too fast but gets caught running away and lies on the ropes until he gets the chance to slip away.

10-9 Salita

Round 4- Salita fires again as Khan goes against the ropes, Khan fires back keeping his chin in. Salita catches Khan as Amir comes in, Khan moves back and Salita fires away again. Both fighters go back to centre ring and fire jabs, Salita has he head snapped back by a big right from Khan. Salita gets knocked against the ropes and Amir unloads relentlessly. Salita thinks Khan might tire but doesn’t and keeps firing. Salita has to fire back and catches Khan and gets away from danger.

10-9 Khan

Round 5- Khan starts strong feeling really confident and hurts Salita in centre ring with a left-right, Khan goes to work on the body, and snaps Salita’s head back with a stinging right hook. Salita topples against the ropes trying to hold on but Khan carries on pounding away before Salita hits the canvas. Salita gets up on 7 and goes back to his boxing making sure Khan doesn’t catch him out again. For the rest of the round it’s just plain jabs from both fighter neither of them going to take a risk.

10-8 Khan

Round 6- Khan waits for a moment to strike after Roach told him not to go looking for the knockout and save your energy. Salita’s left eye will be very swollen and it will be hard to see any right hands coming his way. Khan hits and runs for most of the round and takes little in return.

10-9 Khan

Round 7- Khan pushes Salita back and unloads on the ropes; blood starts to spew from a cut over Salita’s left eye. Salita looks worried and looks to his corner for advice. The blood badly runs into Salita’s eye and Khan makes sure he can’t get away. Salita has no choice but to go down. He gets up at 8 and the referee takes a close look at the blood around his eye and allows the fight to carry on, but Khan starts to flurry again the ref jumps in to stop the contest midway through the round.

Final Verdict- Khan W TKO 7

Khan will prove a lot of people how good he is and how dangerous his punches can be, this may go further than 7 rounds depending how quickly Khan can get started, which when in the right mood can be very quick indeed. Thank you for reading and please add any of your verdicts.

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