By William Mackay: Despite having been knocked out badly in two of his fights against Breidis Prescott and Danny Garcia, former IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (26-3, 18 KO’s) insists that he doesn’t have a chin problem as he heads into his December 15th fight against the light-punching Carlos Molina (17-0, 7 KO’s). Khan’s career is literally on the brink of failure after his loss to Garcia and he’s now made changes by booting legendary trainer Freddie Roach and signing on Virgil Hunter to take over the training reigns.

Khan said this as quoted by the LA Times: “My chin’s not a problem. I still believe Marcos Maidana hit me with bigger punches. I was just caught by Garcia in the wrong place.”

The punch that Garcia hurt Khan with was a vicious left hook to the neck that seemed to rattle Khan’s head like baby rattle, sending him to the canvas in a heap. That punch likely would have had the same affect if it had connected with Khan’s head because it was thrown with so much power. Khan had narrowly avoided getting hit with Garcia’s left in the first two rounds, but in the 3rd, Garcia found Khan and that was it.

The knockout wasn’t a surprise to many boxing fans because Khan had been blown out by Breidis Prescott, and was in serious shape in his win over Maidana in 2010. Maidana was chasing Khan all night long in that fight, and Khan got hit hard in the 10th round after getting staggered.

In the 11th and 12th, the referee Joe Cortez kept separating Maidana and Khan and it’s hard to say what would have happened had there been a referee that is more hands off with fighters. It certainly worked out well for Khan in that fight because the times that Cortez deparated the action where often when Khan was getting blasted with shots while against the ropes.

You have to consider Khan’s chin as fragile. Whether he wants to accept that or not is on him, but it’s better that Khan be aware of that because if he thinks he can stand and trade with the better punchers at 140 then he’s only going to end up getting knocked out again.

Khan wants to beat Molina and the look to avenge his loss to Garcia in 2013. I think if Khan takes that course he’ll end up getting knocked out again and his career will go down the drain with that loss. Khan needs to be focusing on boxing 100 percent of the time when he’s in the ring because he can’t puch with these guys. He might be able to defeat a light puncher like Molina by trading with him, but that’s only because Golden Boy picked him out special from the heap due to his small 5’6″ size and lack of power.