By William Mackay: Referee Kenny Bayless observed that Amir Khan was really having a bad day at the office in his 4th round stoppage loss to WBC light welterweight champion Danny Garcia last night, and having serious problems trying to protect himself from Garcia’s blistering shots in the 4th.

Bayless said to RingTV “Between the first knockdown and to the point where I stopped it, defensively Amir just wasn’t doing enough to protect himself.”

Bayless noted that the punch that knocked Khan down for the third and final time wasn’t that big of a punch compared to the other shots he’d been beating in the 4th. The thing is Khan was so badly hurt by then after having been knocked down twice previously that he couldn’t stay on his feet.

After Khan got up from the third knockdown, Bayless looked him over and asked him if he was okay. Khan nodded that he was but he didn’t look good. Bayless said “He wasn’t showing me enough to protect himself.”

You can say that again. Khan was getting hit nearly at will, and was defenseless to do anything about it.

In hindsight, you got to wonder why Khan failed to do much clinching in the 3rd and 4th rounds. Compared to his last fight, Khan did almost no clinching, which was great for the boxing fans who saw the fight because they didn’t have to watch Khan draping himself all over an opponent. However, the unwritten rule in boxing is that when a fighter is as badly hurt as Khan it’s a good idea to grab their opponents to try and clinch long enough for their heads to clear. Khan failed to do that and it might have cost him the fight.

Bayless said he couldn’t see Khan making a comeback by the 4th, because he’d lost a good amount of his power and he couldn’t stop Garcia from pressuring him.