Khan has no size advantage over Peterson: This could be big trouble for Amir

By Boxing News - 10/07/2011 - Comments

Image: Khan has no size advantage over Peterson: This could be big trouble for AmirBy William Mackay: If you look at IBF/WBA light welterweight champion 5’10” Amir Khan’s previous 27 fights as a pro, Khan has been the taller fighter in 26 of those 27 fights. The one fight where he was the shorter guy was against the 5’11” Breidis Prescott, who easily knocked Khan out in the 1st round in 2008.

Khan’s next tallest opponent was the 5’9 Marcos Maidana, a fighter who Khan took a terrible beating against last December and should consider himself lucky that the referee chose to pull Maidana off of Khan so many times in the last three rounds when Khan was getting it.

The thing about that fight is Khan had an inch in height and one inch in reach over Maidana, and wasn’t enough to keep Maidana from tagging him with big shots. Here’s the thing about the Khan-Peterson fight is that Peterson is 5’9″, only an inch shorter than Khan. But Peterson has a two inch reach advantage over Khan at 73″ compared to Khan’s 71″.

What this means is Khan is basically going to be the shorter fighter on December 10th, and at the mercy of Peterson’s punches. This isn’t the 5’7″ Zab Judah, the 5’8″ Paul McCloskey, 5’8″ Paulie Malignaggi, 5’7″ Andriy Kotelnik or the 5’6″ Marco Antonio Barrera that Khan has fought and beaten in the past. Peterson has got the size to look Khan right in the eye and hit him at the distance without getting hit himself. And actually, I think Peterson is really the same height as Khan.

Although listed at 5’9″ to Khan’s 5’10”, Peterson looks to be the same height. The listed measurements are usually way off and not to be trusted. The real proof is when the two fighters stand eye to eye, and Khan doesn’t have any kind of height advantage against Peterson. What we’re going to see on December 10th is Khan getting hit much more often than he usually does and it’s going to come down to whether his fragile chin can handle all the big shots he’s getting nailed with by Peterson. I don’t know that Khan take those kinds of shots without hitting the canvas for the 10 count.



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