Roach: Khan got knocked out and I get blamed for it

By Boxing News - 02/07/2013 - Comments

khan52By Scott Gilfoid: Amir Khan’s former trainer Freddie Roach doesn’t like some of the comments that Amir Khan made in giving his reasons why he needed to dump Roach after Khan’s 4th round knockout loss to WBA/WBC light welterweight champion Danny Garcia last year in July.

Roach said to Fighthubtv.com “He [Khan] got hit with a left hook and I get blamed for it. But that’s the way it goes.”

After dumping Roach, Khan picked Virgil Hunter to be his replacement. Last December, Khan won his first fight with Hunter as his trainer, beating unranked lightweight Carlos Molina by a 10th round stoppage.

Roach saw the Khan-Molina fight and had this to say about it: “It wasn’t that great a fight…It was not that big an opponent. They [Golden Boy Promotions] kept him away from punchers.”

Khan dumping Roach after his KO loss is the same thing Khan did after he was knocked out by Breidis Prescott in 2008. He dumped his trainer Jorge Rubio after that fight, and went with Roach.

Things worked out well for Khan with Roach as his trainer, as he captured the WBA light welterweight title with a win over Andriy Kotelnik and then Khan defeated IBF light welterweight champion Zab Judah to pick up the IBF 140 pound title in 2011.

However, things began to fall apart for Khan when he was put in with Lamont Peterson in December 2011 with Khan falling to pieces from the pressure that Peterson put him under, and resorting to shoving, pulling down on his head and running from the 4th round on in a fight that Khan lost by a 12 round decision. Following that defeat, Khan was stopped by Danny Garcia by a 4th round knockout last July.

I pretty much expect Hunter to be shown the door once Khan gets knocked out a couple of more times. I can only guess which trainer will be seen as the magical person that will turn Khan’s career around at that point.



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