By Scott Gilfoid: Former Floyd Mayweather Jr. victim Ricky Hatton believes that Amir Khan actually has a decent chance of beating Mayweather Jr. in their proposed fight on May 3rd next year in Las Vegas, Nevada. Although the fight hasn’t been made yet, it’s likely the one that Mayweather will choose to make due to him having run out of interesting opponents to fight.
What’s interesting here is that Hatton is bucking the conventional wisdom about Khan being little more than a sacrificial lamb being brought out for the slaughter on May 3rd. Next to no one sees Khan as being anything more than a fodder opponent for Mayweather, yet Hatton is giving Khan a chance of winning.
You can make a big argument that Khan is a step down for Mayweather from his last four fights against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, Robert Guerrero, Miguel Cotto and Victor Ortiz. Khan would likely struggle against each of these guys, and it would be surprising, at least to me, if he could beat any of them because each of them present aspects to their game that Khan would struggle with, namely in the power department.
“Amir is the only one that could probably match Mayweather for speed, Hatton said to Sky Sports “Amir could give him his biggest problem if Amir doesn’t get drawn in, uses his speed and shows loads of movement.”
I hate to disagree with Hatton, I really do, but I think he’s dreaming here. He needs to step back and have a good cup of coffee and sit down and watch Khan’s last four fights so that he can get a clearer picture of the Khan that exists now. I think Hatton sees Khan through rose-colored glasses, remembering his good performances against Paulie Malignaggi, Zab Judah and Andriy Kotelnik before Lamont Peterson and Danny Garcia got to him. Since those fights, Khan has looked like a shell of his former self, and nowhere near the guy that dominated the likes of Judah and Malignaggi. I’m not sure if Khan could beat any of the guys that Mayweather has fought in his last four fights. In fact, I would favor all of them to beat Khan, even Ortiz.
The problem Khan has is he’s utterly predictable in the way he comes forward to engage. Sure, he’s got fast hands, but he’s easy to predict because he comes forward to attack in a predictable manner and he’s a sucker for a left hook. Mayweather would just time Khan and nail him with a left hook in the same way that Breidis Prescott, Danny Garcia and Julio Diaz were able to do. Once Mayweather has Khan hurt, it’s all she wrote. He’ll finish him off quickly and boxing fans will be grumbling about how they had to pay $60 to see the mismatch.
Comments are closed.