By Scott Gilfoid: Amir Khan (28-3, 19 KO’s) believes that his trainer Virgil Hunter has improved him in the past year, and he feels that moving up to 147 will make him a stronger fighter than he was in the past when he steps inside the ring on Saturday night against 33-year-old Luis Collazo (35-5, 18 KO’s) at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Khan needs a win in this fight against Collazo, and he needs to also look good so that boxing fans will demand that he fight Floyd Mayweather Jr, who will be facing Marcos Maidana in the main event on Saturday at the MGM Grand.
“[I’m] not only going to beat Collazo, but look to beat him in style,” Khan said via Sky Sports. “I wanted a tough challenge at welterweight and not just to go in there against some average guy. Collazo is a legitimate welterweight.”
Collazo is decent but I don’t rate him in the top 15 of the overall best fighters in the 147lb division. Fightnews agrees with me. They don’t rate him as a top 15 fighter. I just looks like Golden Boy Promotions dug up someone for Khan to beat.
There’s a plus and a negative in Khan being matched against Collazo instead of someone that is actually relevant in the welterweight division. If Khan loses to Collazo, then it’s pretty much over for him. If Khan can’t even beat Collazo, who isn’t in the same league as Keith Thurman, Shawn Porter and probably not even Devon Alexander, then it doesn’t bode well for Khan’s career. The positive side of matching Khan against Collazo is that it gives Khan a pretty good chance to win the fight and then get his big money payday fight against Mayweather.
It doesn’t matter that Khan will likely be beaten easily by Mayweather. The payday alone that Khan gets in the Mayweather fight will mean that Khan won’t have to worry about money, and it won’t matter as much if he’s beaten by the other top welterweight’s when/if he’s ever matched against them. Khan could retire after the Mayweather fight, and live well for the remainder of his life.
“You’re going to see an improved Amir Khan, the best Amir Khan, there’s no doubt in my mind about that.”
Khan’s decision not to fight Devon Alexander last December meant that Khan only fought once in 2013, and he’ll have been out of the ring for over a year by the time he fights Collazo this Saturday night. I’m not sure that Khan will be a better fighter for having been out of the ring for that long of a period. It seems more the opposite. But they’ve matched him against an older welterweight in Collazo, who has only faced one decent fighter during the past 5 years of his career with his fight against Victor Ortiz in January of this year.
It’s possible that Khan might look good against Collazo, given that he’s fighting a guy who has largely been dining on 3rd tier carp for the past half a decade. Collazo’s win over a faded Ortiz has propped him up in the minds of a lot of fans, but we’re still talking about a fighter that was beaten by Freddy Hernandez. Collazo was beaten by Freddy in 2011, and that was Freddy’s last win. He’s been beaten by everyone he’s faced since then. That’s a not a good sign if Collazo couldn’t even beat Freddy.
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