Khan, Money and Focus

By Syed Jalil: OK cards on the table, I am an Amir Khan fan and believe that he is potentially one of the most exciting talents in Boxing Today. In Boxing terms, although not the complete package, he brings entertainment and an ‘Edge of the seat” quality that makes his fights compelling and can only be good for Boxing. However Khan also brings something else to the plate, which is his ability to spot an opportunity, understand the implications of the opportunity and then convert it and make himself (and Boxing as well) much more sale able. He did this when he went to the Olympics, nobody in the Olympic set up wanted him to go, but Khan made it happen, knowing full well what could potentially happen if he was successful. He has also done something similar by going to the US and (so far) successfully establishing his presence and his “Name”. Both of these ventures were extremely risky but have clearly paid off for him.

As a result of this Khan gets paid well and receives a lot of attention. This brings a great deal of jealousy from other fighters who are not in same situation such as John Murray. I have very little sympathy for such as Murray who is a great boxer but is amazingly bad at self-promotion and taking the risks required to become a “Name”.

So Khan is well paid could potentially become a superstar, which brings me Khan’s one big flaw (and it is not his chin). It is his occasional lack of focus. This happens for Khan both in Boxing and in Business. An example of this was the 10th round in the Marcos Maidana fight, after a dominant 9th round and the fact that Maidana was reluctant to come out for the 10th, Khan went ever so slightly on Auto-Pilot and as such he was caught by a wild looping overhand right. He should never have been caught by this, he should have been ready as this was Maidana’s only hope at that stage of the fight and Khan should have had his hands up.

But potentially his lack of focus on the Business side could potentially be more damaging. He seems to be allowing people in entourage take over the financial side of his career and these people are clearly not qualified to do so. Due to their unprofessional and shady practices Khan has not been able to secure an opponent for his next fight and much more importantly has lost the services of Alex Ariza.

The loss of Ariza is incredibly bad for Khan. He need to pay attention to this and apply his focus to the business side of his career and remove anybody who involved in the loss of Ariza and get someone who has an idea to negotiate a deal with other fighters.

I am hoping he will, otherwise all of his hard work could slip away very quickly.

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