(Photo credit: Esther Lin/Showtime) By Scott Gilfoid: Amir Khan (28-3, 19 KO’s) thinks the move up in weight to 147 will help him for his fight this Saturday night against Luis Collazo (35-3, 18 KO’s). Khan has been struggling to make 140 for a while now, and now that he’s moved up 7 pounds, he expects that to give him more power than before.
“We been in the gym for the last eight months. I’ve not ate my way up to this weight, I trained my way up to this weight…you’ll definitely see a different Amir Khan come into this fight,” Khan said today.
When Khan says we’ll see a different Khan on Saturday night, it makes you wonder whether he means in terms of his ability to take shots, because that’s really the only way that Khan would be better fighter. In the past there was really nothing wrong with his speed and power. Those were already fine, but the things that Khan had problem was with his defense and his ability to take shots. He was put down in his last fight by Julio Diaz a year ago, and hurt several times in that fight. Khan was on the run in his loss to Lamont Peterson, and knocked out by Danny Garcia. Khan was also knocked out by Breidis Prescott. So when Khan says he’ll be different for the Collazo fight, you have to wonder what he’s talking about. If it’s just his offense that is a shade better, then it might not really make much difference because his offense was already good enough.
We’ll find out on Saturday night whether Khan is a different fighter or basically. I remember Khan saying pretty much the same things he is now when he moved up from the lightweight division shortly after being knocked out by Prescott. Unfortunately, Khan’s problems with taking shots followed him to the light welterweight division, and now he’s moving up to the welterweight division. Will Khan have a chin of steel now, and punching power like Julian Jackson, or will we see the same Khan as before? I really don’t see how 7 pounds will change anything.
It’s not enough weight to make a heck of a lot of difference, and I suspect we’ll see Khan kiss the canvas on Saturday if Collazo catches him with a good shot. That’s not to say that Khan will lose the fight, because I think he’s going to win. His promoter picked out the perfect guy for him to beat by selecting Collazo, who hasn’t beaten a top quality fighter in 9 years. If Khan can’t beat Collazo then he needs to retire because it gets much, much more difficult than Collazo once Khan steps it up several levels in terms of talent against fighters like Shawn Porter and Keith Thurman.
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