By Chris Williams: After two solid years of working with Amir Khan, trainer Freddie Roach’s results have been less than impressive. Khan is for all practical purposes the same fighter he when he first hired Roach to resurrect his career shortly after losing by a 1st round knockout to Breidis Prescott.

But if you look at how Khan fought previous to Roach and see how he fights now, there’s no difference. Khan is the same fighter. He couldn’t fight on the inside back then and he sure can’t fight on the inside now.

We saw that as highlighted by Lamont Peterson last Saturday where Peterson, a fairly good inside fighter, was able to get past Khan’s jabs again and again to work him over on the inside. Khan had no real plan what to do when Peterson would get in close other than to grab him around the head and pull him forward or push him off in an amateurish move.

Is this all Roach has taught Khan after having worked with him more than two years? I think Roach needs to. Khan needs fresh ideas from someone that can 1.) Teach him how to work on the inside. 2. Teach Khan some defensive skills.

Even after all this time with Roach, Khan still can’t defend himself other than just covering up like a punching bag. You can’t just cover up the way that Khan did against Peterson and expect to be successful. Khan might as well have posted a “hit me” sign taped to his forehead. It was stupid to just cover up, but I guess that’s all he’s learned from Roach.
Khan’s inside game is one of the worst I’ve ever seen in my life.

There isn’t even a hint of the basic fundamentals. All Khan can do is grab or push fighters. He can’t fight to save his life on the inside. If Khan was super powerful and super huge like Wladimir Klitschko, then I don’t think it would really matter that Roach still hasn’t taught Khan how to fight in close.

But the problem is Khan isn’t a huge puncher like Wladimir and he doesn’t have a five inch height and reach advantage over his opponents like Wladimir. As such, Khan is going to have to learn how to fight in close if he wants to be successful.

Khan can’t count on being able to push opponents off for 12 rounds or grab them by the head the way he likes to do. They still get through even with those tactics and Khan is going to get knocked out by one of them sooner or later unless he gets a trainer that can teach him what he’s missing from his game.

I think needs to fire Roach immediately and then look to hire a trainer known for teaching defense. At the same time, Khan needs a trainer that can teach him how to fight in close. If he can get a trainer that can teach both defensive skills and inside fighting, then Khan has his guy. But if it takes two trainers to give him what he’s missing, then he needs to do that. He’s certainly got the money to hire two guys if need be. But the important thing is Khan cuts his losses by dumping Roach. We saw that Roach hasn’t taught Khan what he needs to know and it’s time to cut the guy loose.