Khan: I’ll be a better version of myself against Carlos Molina

By Boxing News - 12/06/2012 - Comments

Image: Khan: I'll be a better version of myself against Carlos MolinaBy William Mackay: Amir Khan (26-3, 18 KO’s) believes he’s learned enough in the weeks that he’s been working with new trainer Virgil Hunter to be able to come out on December 15th against an already badly over-matched lightweight Carlos Molina (17-0, 7 KO’s) and show him a greatly improved new version of Khan. It sounds good in theory but can Khan unlearn all of his bad habits and completely change his style in one short camp? I think not.

Khan said to the Telegraph.co.uk “I’ll be wiser in this fight. You’ll see a different and much better Amir Khan. He [Andre Ward] was giving me tips, how to be skillful and smart. It’s been very helpful. LA had too many distractions for me.”

How can Khan know how he’ll perform ahead of time? To say he’ll wiser for the Molina fight is really getting ahead of himself because you don’t how you’re going to perform until you get there. Khan can give lip service about he’s going to be brilliant in the ring against Molina on December 15th, but until he gets out there and does it, he’s just talking a lot of wishful talk.

The advice that Khan gets from Ward can help in terms of keeping Khan from looking to slug it out so much with his opposition. But at the end of the day Khan will still need to be able to handle getting hit hard every once in a while because even if he runs for 12 rounds, he’s going to get hit hard at least once in every round. Against Molina it probably doesn’t matter because Golden Boy has picked out a lightweight with no power for Khan to beat.

Golden Boy didn’t even bother selecting a light welterweight for Khan to fight from his own division. They instead chose a smaller fighter with no power. Obviously, they must have some real worry there with him after Khan’s losses to Lamont Peterson and Danny Garcia. However, Khan will have to be put back in with some hard punchers sooner or later because he can’t keep fighting lightweights while campaigning as a light welterweight.

I know Golden Boy promoted WBC junior middleweight champion Saul Alvarez has been matched up by Golden Boy against light welterweights and welterweights pretty much the entire time he’s held the belt, but Khan can’t make a career out of fighting small guys. He’ll have to be put back in with light welterweights and he’s exhausted the easy marks that Golden Boy fed him such as a past his prime Zab Judah, and Paul McCloskey with no power. Khan has to fight Garcia or Peterson again if he wants to shut down his critics.



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