By Scott Gilfoid: Amir Khan’s former trainer Freddie Roach thinks that he’ll give Floyd Mayweather Jr. all he can handle in the early part of their fight on May 3rd. Khan still hasn’t been officially named as Mayweather’s next opponent, but with Khan’s legion of fans working tirelessly to vote him in as Mayweather’s next opponent in the poll at Mayweatherpromotions.com, it looks like Khan will definitely be the one standing across from Mayweather on May 3rd at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
“I think Floyd will win the fight, but Khan can give him problems in the early rounds because of his speed,” Roach said via Fighthype.
I don’t agree with Roach at all. Khan will give Mayweather zero problems in this fight. Unless Khan changes his fighting style to where he’s attacking less, he’ll get knocked out likely in the 1st or 2nd round. Khan’s habit of charging forward and just throwing blind flurries, will cause him to run into a left hook counter from Mayweather, an that’ll be it. Khan will get up from the knockdown, but he’ll be wobbling all over the ring like he did in his knockout losses to Breidis Prescott and Danny Garcia. When Khan gets hurt to that extent, there’s no coming back from it. The only way Khan could survive against Mayweather is if he backs off and chooses to just toy with Khan for a while instead of putting away after he drops him.
Khan’s trainer Virgil Hunter has been working with him on being more cautious, using his jab more, throwing less flurries and staying more on the outside. Unfortunately, it hasn’t sunk into Khan’s head, because he’s still pretty much fighting in the same wild man style that he’s always fought in. I mean, what’s the point of having a great trainer like Hunter if you’re not going to follow what he’s telling you to do? Khan might as well find any old trainer and have him take him through his paces, and then he can go ahead and ignore what he’s telling him to do during his fights.
Khan’s hand speed won’t be any problem for Mayweather. He’s like a fastball hitter, and he’ll be waiting on Khan to come out at a 100 mph so that he can nail him with a shot that he doesn’t see. There won’t be a referee like Joe Cortez that will pull Mayweather off of Khan once he gets him badly hurt like Cortez did with Marcos Maidana when he had Khan on Bambi legs in the last three rounds of their fight in 2010. When Mayweather hurts Khan, nature will take it’s course with Mayweather knocking him out quickly and efficiently. There won’t be any wasted punches by Mayweather, and there definitely won’t be a referee that pulls Mayweather off of him when he’s working Khan over along the ropes.
It’s too bad that Khan will be the one that ends up winning the vote with Maidana to get the Mayweather fight, because fight fans would get a much better fight if Maidana were to win the vote. I guess it depends on what fans like. If they want to see a 2 round wipe out by Mayweather in destroying Khan, then the Khan-Mayweather fight is the best bet. But if fans want to see a competitive fight, then Mayweather-Maidana is the one to see on May 3rd.
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