Is Amir Khan Shot?

By Jamie Eskdale - 06/06/2013 - Comments

khan52By Jamie Eskdale: Amir Khan has been very vocal these past 4 or 5 weeks of his intention of fighting Floyd Mayweather Junior next year. After his last performance against Julio Diaz it would seem absurd to think that Amir is now 1 fight away from a Mayweather bout. But this folks is the corrupt world of professional boxing were nothing should surprise us anymore.

Khan first came to prominence in 2004 Athens Olympic Games winning a silver medal at the age of 17. He turned professional fairly quickly making his pro debut the following year in the summer of 2005.

He would rack up 18 straight wins picking up the commonwealth and WBO Inter-Continental lightweight titles along the way but however it has to be said not without a few scares.

In his 13th fight he fought against Scotsman Willie Limond who gave Khan a helluva scare by dropping him and appearing to really hurt him in the 6th. At the time the ref received a lot of flak for a seemingly slow count with many believing Limond actually won by KO. Khan rallied and Limond retired on his stool at the end of the 8th citing a broken jaw and broken nose as the reasons. This is where the doubts on Khans ability to take a shot first surfaced. With many claiming then and now that his his seeming limited puch resistance would stop him from truly becoming an elite fighter.

In his 17th fight he fought an over the hill Michael Gomez and stopped him in the fifth although in round 2 Khan was again dropped. Khan said after this fight it was now time to step it up to world level. Many pundits and former fighters were agreed that it was too soon for Khan. He should have 2 or 3 more learning fights and work on his defence before even thinking of stepping it up, Khan would hear none of it and was a young man in a hurry.

At this time Khan would split from his trainer Oliver Harrison with claims being made that Harrison was concerned with outside influences were interfering with Khan’s fight preparations. They split on good terms and Dean Powell would take over until a replacement could be found.

It was announced that Cuban Jorge Rubio would become Khans new trainer and had picked the next opponent for Khan, it would be Colombian Breidis Prescott who had 17 KOs from 19 fights.

Prescott devastatingly knocked Khan out in the 1st round. In fact it was stopped after 54 seconds. With Khans limited punch resistance and non existing defence it was lunacy to put him in with a guy like that at that stage of his career. Rubio was then sacked and replaced with well renowned American trainer Freddie Roach.

Khan would have 2 more fights at lightweight stopping Irishman Oisin Fagan in 2 then Mexican legend Marco Antonio Barrera. The fight was stopped in the 5th with Barrera’s head being cut by a clash of heads suffered in the 1st. It must be made clear that Barrera was faded at this point but it was still a tremendous name for Khan to have on his record nonetheless. Barrera was at the time WBO number 1.

Khan was moved up to light welterweight to fight WBA champion Andreas Kotelnik. This did seem odd because all of his previous 21 fight were at lightweight and Khan had done nothing at the weight above to justify a title fight. Kotelnik wasn’t seen as a big hitter and it could be argued that it was a masterstroke by Khan’s management because at lightweight you had Joel Casamayor, Juan Manuel Marquez and Juan Diaz campaigning so maneuvering him into title contention at the weight above probably made sense.

Khan would win by unanimous decision boxing sensibly behind his jab and using good footwork and head movement seeming to at last show signs of maturity. It must also be said that his knockout to Prescott was only 3 fights previous to this so it was a triumph for Khan to show all the doubters that he did indeed have it in him to win a world title.

Khan would then defend against unbeaten Dimitriy Salita blasting him out in 76 seconds. It would be Khans last fight under promoter Frank Warren and he switched to Golden Boy Promotions for more exposure in the states.
Khan fought Paulie Malignaggi in Madison Square garden. Khan stopped Malignaggi with Malignaggi later praising Khans speed and power. Afterwards Khan said it was his intention to clean up the division and win all the belts before even thinking of moving up in weight.

Next up was mandatory challenger big hitting Marcos Maidana. This was seen as a yardstick for Khan. A real test to see if he could handle Maidana’s power punches.
The fight lived up to expectations and was a fight of the year contender. Khan dropped Maidana in the 1st with a sweet body shot. The Argentine recovered and it was a real ding dong battle. In the 10th round Khan would take some real punishment but some how survived and closed the fight out with a unanimous points win. Was this a new Khan? Could he really take a shot and survive?

Next up was light hitting awkward southpaw Paul Mcloskey. It was a voluntary defence by Khan and it was in Manchester and was somewhat billed as a homecoming for Khan with it being his 1st fight in the UK in nearly 2 years. The fight was stopped after 6 rounds with a cut over McCloskey’s eye. Khan was ahead on every score card and won every round.

Zab Judah was next and Khan stopped him in the 5th. It was another big win for Khan against a big name. It was Khan’s 8th win in a row since the Prescott fight and he had now seemed to rid himself of the ‘chinny’ tag he was often branded with.

His next fight was against Lamont Peterson in Washington DC where the challenger hailed from. Khan was vocal in the build up about how he didn’t mind going to an opponents back yard and would win anywhere.

It was a good fight but also controversial. Khan was deducted 2 points (1 in the 7th and 1 in the 12th) which ultimately gave the victory to Peterson. It was a split decision with 1 judge scoring it 114 111 to Khan( which was later changed to 115 to 110) and the remaining 2 judges giving it to Peterson by 113 112.

A rematch was hastily arranged but in the build up Peterson tested positive for testosterone dashing the rematch. Khan was awarded his WBA belt back but not his IBF belt. The fight should probably have been declared a no contest but as the IBF chose to let Peterson keep their version of the title the win still stands.

Next up was his 2012 fight against Danny Garcia. Khan would outbox him in the 1st 2 rounds using his speed and fast hands well. This all changed in round 3 when Garcia floored him with a left hook. As always after Khan is dropped he always appears desperate to get back up as if to show he’s not hurt whereas he’d be better off taking a knee for the 8 before rising.

Garcia would finish him off in round 4 dropping him twice.

All the doubts of Khan’s punch resistance resurfaced with many people saying there’s no way he could operate at world level the way he couldn’t hold a shot.
Khan’s reaction to his defeat was to ditch Freddie Roach and hire Virgil Hunter who he was hopeful could help his defence. Though Freddie Roach said nobody could change Amir’s style or nature.

He was matched against light hitting Carlos Molina in a confidence building fight who he stopped in the 10th.
Next up was Julio Diaz in what was supposed to be another confidence builder however Diaz would prove more difficult than he was supposed to.

Diaz dropped Khan in the 4th and had him in serious trouble throughout the fight. Khan scraped a narrow unanimous decision though it could have gone either way.
Is this his level now? Or was it simply him adjusting to a new fighting style with a new trainer? Whatever the case is I suppose we’ll find out soon enough.

He was supposed to take on the winner of Garcia V Matthysse but seems to have body swerved that despite saying after Matthysse destroyed Peterson that he had the style to defeat Matthysse. It seems now that moves have been made to match him against Decon Alexander in December for the IBF welterweight title. Skilled technically Alexander may be but a heavy hitter he is not. It looks as if Golden Boy have maneuvered Khan into this position to get him ready for Mayweather. Add this to the fact that Khan had mysteriously been placed into WBC number 2 spot at welterweight despite never fighting at the weight ( although the rankings have been amended recently) the signs all point to Khan getting a shot at Mayweather.

It’s as if Golden Boy can see that Khan is deteriorating and know what would happen if they pitted him against the winner of Garcia-Matthysse and know another defeat would spell the end for Khan as an main event fighter.As though they are in a race against time to make sure it happens before its impossible.

Knowing that if Khan beats Alexander it would make him a welterweight champion and more credible for a fight versus Mayweather. This would be a fight that would make a fortune particularly if it were to happen in the UK where Mayweather has said he would love to fight.
Should Khan defeat Alexander expect to see this fight next year.



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