By Dominic Sauboorah: After analyzing Amir Khan for many years it’s without question that he’s one of the most exciting and one of the most dramatic fighters in boxing. His defensive vulnerabilities and lighting fast hands make him hypnotic to watch. However the main weakness that people keep pointing out is his punch resistance. But don’t people find it strange that Khan was able to take the heavy punches of Peterson and Maidana without taking a knee, yet when he was against Garcia and Diaz he gets dropped?

Leading on from this I also think it’s more than a coincidence that the question marks about his chin arose again right after Alex Ariza leaves Khan as his strength and conditioning coach, when under the conditioning of Ariza Khan hadn’t been dropped once. In my opinion I believe Khan will once again be a genuine force to be reckoned with if he goes back to being conditioned with Alex Ariza.

Looking at Khan in his fights against Malignaggi, Maidana, Peterson and Kotelnik Khan filled out the 140 lb. division very nicely and he looked massive for the weight. His legs looked bigger and stronger and so did his upper body such as his shoulders and neck. In those fights he looked comfortable taking normal shots or cuffing punches, when he took power punches of course it grabbed his attention but he didn’t look out on his feet. The one exception can be made against Maidana but the fact that he took so many punches without dropping proves that the condition of Ariza helped Khan to survive that Onslaught and show that his punch resistance had improved.

Khan’s first fight without Ariza Came against Danny Garcia and in that fight got dropped 3 times. After that he faced Molina who didn’t have much of a punch yet when he connected on Khan it did still seem to trouble him. Finally against Diaz he got dropped with a cuffing left hand, in my opinion, and went down, yet took a monstrous right hand from Maidana and managed to stay up? Especially in the Garcia fight, when he wasn’t being conditioned by Ariza, Khan looked very trim and lean when in previous fights he looked bulky and huge.

Amir Khan is a talented fighter and has all the tools to be a future hall of famer, but in my eyes if you haven’t got a good punch resistance you don’t stand much of a chance at the top of the game unless you have a great defence which Khan doesn’t have and I doubt that Virgil Hunter will be able to correct that style effectively. For Khan to be as successful as he was back in 2010/2011 he needs Ariza so that his punch resistance increases, added along with the defensive tools and temperamental skills that he can learn from Hunter.

This could make Khan even more unstoppable than he originally was. Under Ariza Khan looked strong at 140 and was able to hack it against the biggest punchers in the division yet the minute he leaves Ariza question marks about his chin get brought up again and apparently he should be moving up in weight because he can’t hack it at 140 even though he was such a dominant force before. In my opinion if Khan keeps hold of Hunter and also brings in Ariza there’s no telling how far Khan can go. Also, if Khan does land the Mayweather shot, the conditioning of Ariza will give him an even better chance of pulling off the upset and becoming the pound for pound king.