Danny Garcia: Khan should beat Julio Diaz

By Boxing News - 03/20/2013 - Comments

diaz33By Scott Gilfoid: WBA/WBC light welterweight champion Danny Garcia believes Amir Khan (27-3, 19 KO’s) has the speed and the youth to get by former IBF lightweight champion Julio Diaz (40-7-1, 29 KO’s) next month on April 27th at the Motorpoint Arena, Sheffield, Yorkshire, United Kingdom.

However, Garcia doesn’t know whether or not Khan has actually improved or not under his new trainer Virgil Hunter because he’s still not being put in with quality world class opposition. Diaz, 33, may have been a world champion 8 years ago, but he’s not the same fighter now, and he’s an unranked welterweight fighting above his best weight by two divisions.

Garcia said to Sky Sports “It’s a fight he’s [Khan] supposed to win. You know Diaz’s better days were at 135. He’s a little older now. I think Khan’s speed should get him through the fight and he should win. You’re not going to really tell [if Khan has improved] until he fights the top fighters. When you fight someone who cannot keep up with you, you are going to look like a star.”

It’s true, Diaz’s best days are way, way behind him, and this is just another Khan vs. Carlos Molina type of fight. It looks like Khan and Golden Boy Promotions aren’t taking any chances at all with him by keeping him out of harm’s way until he faces the winner of the four-main light welterweight tourney involving Lamont Peterson, Lucas Matthysse, Danny Garcia and Zab Judah.

Khan gets to the finals of the tourney simply by beating Julio Diaz instead of having to grind his way through tough fights against Peterson, Matthysse and Garcia. Every time I think about that I just think it’s so, so wrong. Khan gets an easy path to the finals despite the fact that he’s lost two out of his last three fights.

Heck, it should be Khan that’s in the trenches having to get past Peterson, Matthysse and Garcia in order to get to the finals. Letting Khan get to the finals by only having to fight Garcia is like giving him a forfeit victory.

Garcia is right about not being able to tell if Khan has improved or not based on his mediocre opposition. You can’t really know if Khan has improved until he faces someone that can knock him out cold. If he can beat those types of fighters without getting knocked out then you can say he’s improved, but until then you’re not going to know because fighters like Carlos Molina and Julio Diaz won’t tell you anything about him.



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