By William Mackay: Amir Khan (26-2, 18 KO’s) may be sorry that he chose to fight WBC light welterweight champion Danny Garcia (23-0, 14 KO’s) on July 14th instead of a different type of fighter because Khan is in a way going back in a time machine to face a similar fighter to the one that beat him last December in Khan’s loss to Lamont Peterson.

In that fight Khan couldn’t handle Peterson’s inside pressure and he was forced to shove and run in order to try and survive. Those tactics kept Khan from being knocked out, to be sure. But it cost Khan the fight because he wasn’t able to stand and fight Peterson in a traditional fight. He needed to shove, pull down on his head and put him in headlocks to keep from getting overpowered in close.

Peterson wasn’t bothered by the shoving from Khan, although the referee clearly was, because he took off two points for it. And Peterson wasn’t bothered by Khan’s running, because he neutralized this tactic by jogging after Khan and catching him again and again.

Garcia has a good blueprint to study in getting reach to face Khan. All Garcia has to do is make sure he puts constant pressure on Khan, and keep the fight to the inside where Khan isn’t able to get leverage on his shots. Khan’s trainer Freddie Roach has been working on trying to get Khan to throw more uppercuts and using more angles in his attacks. But I don’t see this as helping Khan, because he stops throwing uppercuts when he’s getting drilled in the head and the body. Garcia will be nailing Khan and forcing him to cover up or run.

I fully expect Khan to start shoving, pulling down on Garcia’s head and putting him in headlocks just like he did with Peterson. I’m sure Khan will be looking at the referee while he’s pulling down on Garcia’s head, as if to check whether he’ll be scolded for the fouling technique.