Khan’s new fighting style could keep him from getting Mayweather fight

By Boxing News - 05/05/2014 - Comments

khan4444By Scott Gilfoid: Last Saturday night we saw the new Amir Khan (29-3, 19 KO’s) revealed with his clinch-filled 12 round decision victory over Luis Collazo (35-6, 18 KO’s) on the Floyd Mayweather Jr – Marcos Maidana undercard at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. This was supposed to be the new and improved Khan that would be more exciting, more powerful and more of a threat to beating Mayweather.

Khan used more movement and more head-grabbing in this fight than he had in his last two fights, and it made his fight with Collazo very difficult to watch due to the constant tie-ups that Khan was initiating. According to theguardian, one of the Showtime executives wasn’t pleased with Khan’s new defensive fighting style, saying “We liked the old Amir.”

Mayweather is in the business of entertainment, and he can’t be fighting someone who is going to tie him up in a headlock or lean on his neck 10+ times per round as Khan was doing against Luis Collazo last Saturday. Mayweather absolutely needs fighters that are going to make it exciting for the fans, and not look to go into a 12 round time killing stall.

Khan’s previous style of fighting had made him exciting to watch because he was willing to take more chances, and you never knew if he was going to get knocked out by one of his opponent’s big shots. What we saw last Saturday was Khan moving nonstop for 12 rounds, and constantly grabbing Collazo in either head locks, clinches or head bending maneuvers.

It’s very likely that Khan’s new changes to his fighting style weren’t lost on Mayweather Jr, because when he was asked at the post-fight press conference if he’d be interested in fighting Khan, Mayweather said he wasn’t sure who he’ll fight next. Mayweather didn’t even mention Khan’s name when answering the question, and that obviously isn’t a good sign to say the least.

When Mayweather is interested in fighting someone, he tells the fans about that fighter. But he didn’t do this with Khan, and you have to figure that he doesn’t like the idea of fighting someone who is going to be moving all night and grabbing him head constantly to keep him from getting off of his shots. Fighters aren’t supposed to do that, and Khan got away with it all night long against Collazo before the referee did anything about it.

The referee Vic Drakulich was a slow in realizing that Khan was the one that was grabbing Collazo by the head and bending him over into an L-shape, as Draukulich started off the fight by giving Collazo warnings. But by the 8th round, Draukulich finally realized that Khan was holding and pulling down on Collazo’s head constantly as a way of keeping him from throwing punches. In other words, it was a method to keep Collazo’s offense bottled up without having to block or duck his shots the way that normal fighters do. You’re not supposed to grab and opponent’s head and bend him forward or put him in head-locks over and over again in each round.

Khan was allowed to get away with this move most of the fight with the one exception where Drakulich took a point away. That point deduction cancelled out the earlier point that Drakulich took from Collazo for hitting Khan low after he leaned on Collazo’s head and put him into an L-shape.



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