Would Khan do Better with Mayweather Sr. as his Trainer?
February 27th, 2010
By Alexander Fugate: After watching some of Amir Khan’s fights, it would seem that Khan could become a better fighter with a defensive minded trainer. His current trainer, Freddie Roach is an excellent trainer; however he doesn’t focus on defense. Roach works more on developing clean and fluid punching. And right now, Khan seems to have amazing hand speed and is more than capable of throwing five-plus punch combos.
On the other hand, Mayweather Sr. has worked with numerous fighters and usually to a good effect. Granted his tenure as Hatton’s cornerman for the Pacquiao fight didn’t work out, but that’s because Hatton fought like he always did. He wasn’t about to change his entire style of fighting after 45 fights where he was a straight brawler. Mayweather Sr. often tries to teach the famous shoulder roll technique.
This is a very tricky style to learn, but once a fighter masters this, it causes problems for any opponent. Mayweather also works on footwork and how to stay just out of range of one’s opponent. Basically, Mayweather Sr. is a defensive-oriented trainer and Roach is more offensive minded. And watching Khan it’s obvious he already is a great offensive fighter, but sometimes leaves himself open for big shots.
It seems like the logical thing would be to work with a defensive guru, like Mayweather Sr., because while Roach is a great trainer in his own right, throwing clean punches isn’t going to help you when you get caught with a great counter shot. When Pacquiao fought Marquez we saw that it didn’t matter that Manny had more punches in his arsenal, because he still got tagged with power counter-punches all night long.
It appears Khan wouldn’t be able to finish the fight on his feet if he took that kind of punishment. Which makes one question, why Khan isn’t more focused on becoming a better defensive fighter? Prescott already showed the world what can happen with just one, good clean punch to Khan’s chin, and it seems like Khan is depending on Roach’s ability to cherry-pick his opponents to launch his career.
Roach is excellent at deciding who he will put in the same ring as his fighters and that could carry the day for Khan. Pacquiao has been avoiding any fighter that uses lateral foot movement and counter-punching, practically his entire career. The only real exception to that are the two fights with Marquez, and many feel that Pacquiao lost both of those fights.
That Pacquiao refuses to fight any true “boxer” doesn’t seem to bother his fans at all. So if Khan can get enough big name opponents that lack real power, he could very well raise quite high in the boxing world. He already destroyed Barrera, and with Morales announcing his comeback and Marquez still in the game, Khan could very easily get hyped up really big by beating the exact same fighters that got Pacquiao so big.
I have little doubt Khan would beat both Morales and Marquez, and that would already put him a notch above Pacquiao who struggled terribly with Marquez, and lost to a war ravaged Morales in their first meeting. Manny’s fans don’t mind that his opponents best days were already behind them by the time he got in the ring with them, so it just seems like if Khan can get enough big name fights, it really won’t matter if he would lose to power punchers.
After all, Pacquiao would probably lose to any great, or even just really good counter-puncher and that hasn’t bothered him at all, he just refuses to fight those kinds of fighters. I really don’t see why Khan can’t do the same thing. Still, I think it would benefit Khan more if he worked on his defensive abilities and not getting hit, and then he wouldn’t have to worry about how hard somebody hits, and could get in the ring with anyone.
Tags: 50 Responses to “Would Khan do Better with Mayweather Sr. as his Trainer?”
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James Toney is/was one of the best defensive fighters of all time! Didn’t Roach Train him?
FREDDIE just like FLOYD sr. are self promoting, camera and microphone lovers who relishes in taking the SPOTLIGHT AWAY FROM THEIR FIGHTERS.
All Mayweather Sr does is play Patty cake with the Focus pads. This Clown dosn’t even teach correct form, or body punching
Actually Mayweather Sr made Delahoya worst. When Oscar trained with Hispanic trainers he was a devestaing body puncher especially that hook to the body. He goes to Mayweather and he became a lousy body puncher, than Floyd tried to make him a shoulder roll guy and Oscar did not have the reflexes for that style. Than he begain to have stamina issues’s with SR. The guy is over rated and only has his name because of his son’s talent. Mayweather Sr was a lousy boxer ko’d by Sugar Ray.
Mayweather sr is better than Freddie, Freddie just gets better fighters. All he does is keep them in shape. Mayweather made De La Hoya better. Compare him in the first fight with Mosley to the second. Sure he lost, but he did way better, and it’s a controversial loss. Mayweather turned Hatton into a boxer in the Malignaggi fight. He completely outboxed Paulie, and that was only one fight. He may have lost to Pac, but that was too tough an opponent at that point. Hatton and Floyd both said he wasn’t completely transformed from his former self yet
Chad Dawson, Joan Guzman, six years with ODLH in which the only fight he lost at his natural weight was a controvversial decision to Mosley that was investigated by the FBI for fixing. As soon as Roach took back the duties for ODLH he lost with a 16 pound weight advantage. But yea, just because champion fighters have gotten much better with Mayweather Sr. means Mayweather is garbage. Only a bum could turn out that many champions. Other than Pacquiao how many champs has Roach turned out??? Not as many as Mayweather.
The amount of champions each trainer has produced would suggest otherwise…
Khan was actually going to select Mayweather Sr as his trainer beofre the Prescott fight, before he met with the Cuban AMATUER trainer Jorge Rubio; lol how ironic he got sparked out! he could’ve done with some of that Mayweather brand defense that night haha!
no one should be trained by floys sr. look what happened to poor hatton. he would have had a better chance with his old trainner against pac.
I can tell you are truly not a Freddie Roach and Pacquiao fan. You are continuosly mentioning Pacquiao & Roach names, praising while discrediting them at the same time. You are raising a controversial subject here intentionally. You can pick a lot of better trainer but you mentioned Mayweather sr. against Freddie and I´m sure you are well aware that these 2 trainers never get along. And you are using this article putting some ideas to attract Amir Khans camp purposely knowing Amir Khan and his father are so ambitious and may adapt your sneaky ideas. Clever move!
rubbish article
unimpressed with this article, garbage.
what a rubbish and biased article, whoever wrote should never write this. pacquaio never fought a truely elite fighter, are you being serious.
From Khan to MaySr. to Roach to Pacquiao all the way… Fugate you must’ve lost a big time bet on Pacquiao, you hate him so much. Learn your lessons, don’t bet against him.
I’m not a Pacquiao fan, i’m actually a Mayweather fan, but this article is clearly just a backhanded way of insulting him.
forget about mayweather sr,s .. the all loser anyway… lets focus on pacman amir haye .. world champion ..
It matters not who trains khan they will not make a class jaw any better and at some point in a fight a big hitter is going to land at least one telling shot. So khan best stay with roach because mayweather senior is no better at all.
Has this writer ever seen an Amir Khan fight?
Roach and Khan have worked night and day on his defence, infact against Bareera and Kotelnik he was over defensive throwing many many shots but very little power shots because his hands were so tight to his chin he never pulled his arms back and threw everything like a stiff jab.
Against Salita he felt free enough to be able to unleash some power and showed Salita that he was out of his depth pretty quick.
My problem with Khans defence is under a bit of a barrage he just gets his gloves tight to his chin and stands still when he should be looking to get out of range with footwork and distance. But then ive no doubt Roach is working on that too which is why they dont want Khan in with a power puncher just yet.
But for the writer to not even notice this is just plain daft.
go amir go
I thought this article was about Khan, it seems it is just a way of bashing PACMAN. Has Floyd Sr won any Trainer of the Year award. ROACH has won at least twice.
And you know how Floyd Sr treat his fighter. Remember when Ricky Hatton was KO’d. Floyd Sr just left him for dead without even going over to see if he is ok.
Would Khan be better with Floyd Sr. I DONT THINK SO.
Haku313 – What the hell does that have to do with Khan? No-one gives a crap what your opinion is over Pacquiao… You can take bits of quotes from anywhere to back up any dumb argument, as you have proved.
In answer to the article – No, Khan is best off staying with Roach and Mayweather Snr smokes crack and talks sideways.
you cant judge floyds training ability on the hatton pacquio fight, any one with a half decent boxing brain can see as soon as the bell went hatton forgot every thing he learnt and his game plan and went in swinging
in a word no mayweather snr is far to egotistical to work with a fighter like khan he thinks he is the main attraction instead of getting on with his job whereas roach is 100% professional
he did nothing for fatty hatton, and he wont do anything for khan, now put roach with hatton 5 years ago, i really think things would be different if he did
yes he would be better off with mayweather sr. and not freddie roach. why does everyone think roach is like a god. khans new defence is running backwards in circles and standing like a dummy with his gloves up to his head getting pelted and blinded at the same time, it doesnt suit his style which is to be able to see whats coming. his chin isnt good enough to just stand there and block his own vision and all this jumping around is going to leave him exhausted in a real fight.
freddie relies to heavily on cherry picking and hype. he’s hyped khan up too much and then doesnt want him taking certain fights, why is that then, doesnt say much for his confidence in khan. i havent noticed much change in khan since he started with freddie except that he’s gone back to how he used to be with harrison as his trainer and he’s not even moving as well as he did then, he seems stiff and uncomfortable.
it’ll be too late to change soon if he sticks with freddie much longer, trouble is he’s hyped freddie and the wildcard gym up so much he’d look daft changing trainers again, but he might consider it if he gets ko’d again.
Didn’t know Mayweather was smart enough to create an alias. Sounds like he begging for a job after his boy Hatton got schooled and did’nt learn a thing from Joy Mayweather Sr.
One question … Who is this writer Alexander Fugante? Never heard of this guy. Anyway, I beg to disagree on about everything written in this article. Offense is the best defense. Mayweather Snr is not even close to what Roach had already achieved. Roach is a master tactician and who says that he doesn’t develop defense for his boxers … that’s full of BS. Look at Pacquiao, he’s a mature fighter now with the help of Roach. Do you think anyone can just outbox Pacquiao for the full 12 rounds? … I don’t think so. Now tell me, if no one can outbox Pacquiao then Pacquiao should have a very good defense.
@ Alexander Fugate;
WOW, is this an article about Amir Khan’s need for defensive improvement or a discrediting of Pacquaio’s talent and accomplishments??? At least buy the man dinner first before you F__K him!
Mayweather Sr is over rated as a trainer. I believe he made Delahoya worse. Before Oscar trained with Mayweather he was an excellent body puncher. Mayweather made him forgot how important the body was, he tried to make Oscar a shoulder roll guy but Oscar didn’t have the reflexes for that style.
Jealously to the great Pacman is everywhere, keep it coming! hahahaha
I like how the writer uses Khans name in the article to throw shots at Manny.Sorry Mayweather sr is borderline retarded, have you listened to him ? He shouldn’t be allowed to talk let alone train anyone.As far as the Hatton vs Pac fight why would you try to completly change the way a fighter (Hatton) has fought all of his life in a couple months training ? Complete ignorance (Floyd sr)!! The only reason anyone would hire Floyd sr is to get insight on fighting Floyd jr (the ducker mayweather).
Quit using the Hatton fight as the example…if you go back and watch the fight in between rounds May SR. is yelling and urgung Hatton to do what he learned in camp. Lets face it…you can’t work wonders in a couple months with a fighter who had a lifetime of bad habits. If Hatton was fighting a winable fight he would of keep May SR. and had a lot more time to work with each other.
Like most people who have left a comment on this column i dont know a whole lot about boxing. But it amazes me to think that someone who sounds like such an idiot which such a poor vocabulary (Mayweather Sr.) would be able to instill any kind of useful advice in his employer. At least Roach sounds intelligent when being interviewed.
Well Khan is a champion, but is he not running away from the maidana fight. Goes to show you don’t really have to fight the best to be the best. And yes Roach does cherry pick opponents for fighters, I doubt anyone dangerous will be touching Khan anytime soon and PAC wont be facing any elite conter-punchers with good head-movement. Oh well he’s making boxing popular again, so wether or not he’s fighing tough competition doesnt matter. Both are gonna do it MAYWEATHER style (win big early, then get popular and avoid the tough fighters that might put a damper in your career. Khan wont face anyone that could and would expose his glass chin, Roach is a good trainer and yes he is also good at cherry picking fighters for his prospects.
What a one sided article!!! Obviously you hate everything about pac, Feddy cannot be compared to May Sr. it’s beyond comparison. i hope you didn’t forget the pacquiao hatton fight. Sr still have the Face to blame ricky for all the mistakes ,excluding himself (of course), being a good trainer, sr must admit his short comings (to much pride) what happen with ricky was, lack of trust on both boxer and trainer, sr didn’t establish that, so what ricky did.. he just rely on his instict and we know the outcome.
He’s doing fine where he is I think.
keep that head case away from any prospect. Whether he would be effective teaching Khan defence isnt the question. Its his attitude.
im sure mayweather snr is a great boxing trainer but he craves for more attention then his fighter
i love amir khan . i watch all of his fight . he is a very good fighter .. no douth .. lot of people saying bad things about him .. but he just prove them wrong . .. 1 round 1 punch and all the big mouth close ..
Freddie roach is no bum. Man is very good on what he does. Only a fool will see him otherwise like Mayweather sr
yeah right. this author is retarded. Khan has been winning since he got together with roach. why would you fix something that’s not broken? plus, mayweather sr. couldn’t even be on time when he was training hatton. how is he gonna instill discipline to a boxer when he doesn’t have one himself. last mayweather sr. is just like his son. He is the best trainer in the world on his own claim. only he agrees and know that, the piblic doesn’t.
Hey Mr. Fug, is your article about khan or pacman? make up your mind lol.
His chin isn’t that bad, you’ll find out in the future.
Any boxer needs a good trainer specially during a KO loss. Where was Floyd Sr. when Hatton hits the canvass after that brutal KO by Pacman? He went straight to the locker room not minding to check on his fighter. Now that’s a good defensive trainer ID..T!
@Alexander Fugate – your children will be better off if they change their father coz you’re a bad and moronic father. hahahaha
hahaha, this writer is funny for being stupid. c’mon are there any brain left in your head. just look at ricky hatton. amir will get knocked out in round 1 if he change to mayweather sr.
Who cares
mate the fat ricky hatton didn’t want to listen
ell-nut-so with big mouth=wtf
I think he would be better off with Freddie because if you remember Ricky Hatton needed a much better defence when he fought Manny Pacquiao and was finished in just 2 rounds. Where was Mayweather Sr’s excellent defence tactics in Ricky?