Khan thinks some of his critics are jealous of him

By Boxing News - 03/30/2013 - Comments

khan88By Scott Gilfoid: Former IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (27-3, 19 KO’s) thinks some of his critics are jealous of his talents, because he doesn’t understand how they can criticize him when he’s beaten guys like Zab Judah, Marcos Maidana and Paulie Malignaggi.

Khan said to thesun.co.uk “I don’t know why some fans and a few other fighters have a go at me. Jealously maybe? But I’ve learned to live with it and all that kind of sneaky criticism no longer bothers me.”

I bet. I think the criticism has to bother Khan, as it would anyone because it’s not just coming from a few fans. We’re talking massive amounts of fans are criticizing Khan, and that suggests that they see holes in his game.

I don’t think it’s jealously from fans. I think some of them are put off by Khan’s self-confidence and his bragging about his talent.

Khan has been knocked out by Breidis Prescott and Danny Garcia, and he was beaten by Lamont Peterson. He’s lost two out of his last three fights, and his promoters at Golden Boy have put him in the cushy situation where he only has to defeat the aging former IBF lightweight champion Julio Diaz (40-7-1, 29 KO’s) next month in their fight on April 27th in Sheffield to get to the finals of Golden Boy’s 6-fighter tournament in December.

The other fighters – Lucas Matthysse, Lamont Peterson, Danny Garcia and Zab Judah – will be facing off in elimination bouts with the winner of the tourney facing Khan. In other words, those guys have the hard work, while Khan only has to fight the non-top 15 ranked Diaz to get to the finals.

Golden Boy has basically put Khan in the finals by having him fight what amounts to be another tune-up fight for him. That kind of thing puts boxing fans off and causes them to criticize Khan. It looks like Golden Boy is playing favorites by giving Khan a free ride to the finals.

Khan never attempted to avenge his loss to Prescott, and instead said it wasn’t worth it after Prescott was beaten by fellow Brit Kevin Mitchell by a 12 round decision. I saw the same fight and had Prescott winning 9 rounds to 3 over Mitchell. I still think Prescott would have won the fight had it not taken place in the UK. But ignoring the Prescott-Mitchell fight, Khan never even attempted to avenge the loss, and you have to wonder why.

Then there’s the controversy about Khan’s win over Maidana in 2010 in a fight where Khan was out on his feet, and taking heavy punishment from Maidana. The referee kept getting in the way of Maidana while he was trying to finish Khan off, and even took a point away from Maidana for him throwing an elbow that hit no one except the referee accidentally.

You can make a strong argument that with a referee that didn’t get in the way of Maidana while he was attempting to finish Khan off, we’d have seen Khan knocked out. If you look at rounds 10, 11 and 12 in the Khan-Maidana fight, it’s hard to understand why the referee kept pulling Maidana off of Khan while he was looking to stop him.

The referee is supposed to let the fighters work on the inside, even if it’s one-way action like it was after Khan got hurt. I think Khan would have been knocked out had it been a referee that let’s fighters work on the inside. Golden Boy really lucked out when that referee was assigned to the fight.

There’s the perception there among some boxing fans that Khan has had things given to him on silver platter due to his popularity that other less popular fighters don’t get. This obviously is something that leads to Khan getting criticized.



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