By William Mackay: Freddie Roach, Amir Khan’s trainer, is reportedly offering a $1000 to any sparring partner that can come into the Wildcard gym camp in Los Angeles, California and knock Khan down in a sparring session. Khan, 25, is getting ready for a July 14th title challenge against WBC light welterweight champion Danny Garcia.

Khan said to thesun.co.uk “Freddie says if anyone can knock down me or Manny [Pacquiao] they will get a thousand dollars, but it’s not happened yet. My sparring sessions are always full on, you never take it easy on sparring partners. We spar 10 rounds in total, with three sparring partners who come in fresh after three or four rounds.”

That’s interesting, but what Khan isn’t saying is who these sparring partners are. Generally speaking, sparring partners are usually guys well below the talent level of the fighters they’re training with. So, it’s not as if Khan is sparring with Breidis Prescott, Marcos Maidana, Lucas Matthysse, and Mike Alvarado. He’s obviously being put in with guys below that level and he’s probably not being put in with any punchers. Do you honestly think Roach is going to hire sparring partners with big power to spar with Khan? That’s not going to happen. The idea is for Khan to work on skills, not get knocked cold.

Khan has his work cut out for him for his fight against Garcia, because this guy can not only punch but he also likes throw a lot of shots. In addition to that, Garcia is good at putting a lot of pressure on his opponents and that’s another problem Khan can have. Khan looked bad against Maidana and Lamont Peterson with the pressure that they put on him. Khan was able to survive a lot of the pressure that was put on him in the Maidana fight because of Maidana’s slow feet.

However, Maidana eventually caught up to Khan and staggered him in the 10th with a huge right hand. Many referees would have stopped it at that point because Khan was so badly hurt. However, the referee allowed it to continue and Khan had enough of a lead to win it on the cards. Khan did a lot of shoving and holding in his loss to Peterson last December in response to the pressure that Peterson was putting on him. Garcia is better at pressuring his opponents than Peterson and Maidana, because he’s quicker hands. He’s going to make it really tough Khan in this fight, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Khan suffers another loss. I just hope his promoters Golden Boy Promotions don’t create a big fuss about it like they did with the Peterson loss and appeal it.