There is no way that Khan could ever beat Garcia in a rematch

By Boxing News - 07/20/2012 - Comments

Image: There is no way that Khan could ever beat Garcia in a rematchBy Hector Gonzalez: It appears that many Khan fans are having a hard time admitting that Khan was overrated all along. Many of his fans are claiming that Garcia landed a ‘lucky punch’, and that Khan would ‘surely win a rematch’, as if Khan deserved a rematch to begin with.

They claim that Khan would win by ‘boxing’ more as if Khan fundamentally had sound boxing skills… he doesn’t. These fans don’t appear to know much about the sweet science so I thought I’d write this article.

First and foremost, lets look at the round 1 and 2 of the fight this weekend. What Khan fans may see as Khan dominating, I look at as a counter clinic by Garcia. Many fans are not able to understand what is happening in a fight; in order to comprehend the flow of any fight, it helps to be able to understand the tools and weakness of a fighter in the ring as well as to be able to understand how much they are in control of what they are doing and trying to get their opponent to do.

In round 1, if you follow Khan enough you know that he has a bum-rushing style pushing his opponents back and many times bombarding them with pushes. Yet this did not happen in round 1 vs Garcia. Almost every exchange where Khan threw a combination it was countered. Khan did win the round by virtue of being the more active fighter, but if you follow boxing enough you know that Garcia is a slow starter.

In round 2, Almost every combination that Khan throws is now almost completely blocked. Garcia is now landing body shots and setting up combinations. Khan is now starting to headlock and push off with his elbow. Khan wins the round again by being more active, but it’s important to recognize that Garcia is beginning to open up.

By the beginning of round 3, Garcia is now making Khan miss. For the first minute of the round Khan has a hard time catching Garcia and when he does, he is countered. At this point it appears that Khan literally doesn’t know how to attack without being countered. By the second half of the round, Garcia is now the one setting up combinations, especially to the body. At exactly 1min left in the 3rd round, Khan gets countered with a crisp looping right. It’s obvious that Khan is now afraid of Garcia’s power. He looks hesitant to engage. Something important that fans need to understand is that timing kills speed—it’s not necessarily about speed, it’s about timing! When a fighter is making you miss, blocking your punches, and is countering you—that means the fighter has you timed.

At the start of round 3, Garcia dodges Khans right cross by moving to the left. He does that twice in the beginning of the round as if he’s testing Khans movements after throwing the right. A big weakness that Khan demonstrated comes in at 2:38 of the 3rd round. Khan throws the right cross, Garcia moves to the left and is literally behind Khan completely making him miss, and Khan instead of blocking the right side of his face, throws a left with his right hand completely down disregarding the possibility of a counter. The point is that the left hook counter from Garcia was being set up very early in the fight.

Khan fans suggest that if Khan would have ‘continued’ with the game plan he would have ‘won the fight’…..That was Khan’s game plan, it didn’t work. One of the main criticism that Garcia has coming into the fight was that his punches are so loopy that he leaves himself open in the middle, that was the game plan, attack right down the middle without being countered. Khan isn’t proficient enough to execute it in the way that Erik Morales was able to.

Khan can’t beat Garcia no matter what strategy he uses because he does not have the tools to. Khan’s attacks are always the same- they’re always moving forward. But in order to be effective Khan needs to learn how to fight walking backwards, setting up opponents for one special punch- the problem is that Khan does not have a special punch and Khan does not know who to fight walking backwards. Khan’s speed and offense is a strength but it’s also his weakness. His fast hand are what makes him stand out, but that’s not necessarily the best way of fighting, sometimes the best way to fight is too know when to slow the fight down and out think your opponent just like Marquez and Mayweather. In the case of Khan, his speed makes him sloppy and if he were to slow down he would be less effective because although he might be a smarter fighter he also does not have any other tools besides rushing in with punches.

There are a few things fundamentally wrong, lack of power, weak chin, no defense. Perhaps Khan could be a great champion one day with a new trainer and a bit more humility…. But why worry about that when they’re many more deserving opponents that could take the limelight… Matthysse would be a great start!



Comments are closed.