Khan: I have to beat Alexander in style

By Boxing News - 12/08/2014 - Comments

khan4444By Scott Gilfoid: WBC Silver welterweight strap holder Amir Khan (29-3, 19 KOs) realizes that he’s in a tough situation in his fight this Saturday night against former two division world champion Devon Alexander (26-2, 14 KOs) at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Khan figures that for him to get an important fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr next year, he’s going to need to beat Alexander in an impressive fashion. In other words, Khan will either need to knock Alexander out or dominate him in a one-sided manner like he did against Luis Collazo last May.

“This is definitely an audition, or a dress rehearsal for a fight with Mayweather. It will be the opportunity to imagine what it will be like when I’m up against Floyd Mayweather, the biggest fight of my career,” Khan said to the Telegraph.co.uk.

Khan figures that there will be a packed house at the MGM Grand when he and Alexander face each other on Saturday. It may not have a ton of people. I hope for Khan’s sake he isn’t let down if he comes in and sees a sparse crowd, because the reality is he’s not a huge name in the United States of yet.

The big reason for that is the fact that Khan has been beaten several times, and never avenged any of his defeats. He only has one credible win on his entire resume and that was his controversial decision over Marcos Maidana in 2010.

That’s the fight where Maidana battled both Khan and referee Joe Cortez in the last three rounds of the fight after hurting Khan in the 10th.

Khan was quite fortunate that he wasn’t knocked out in that fight, because a more hands off referee would have stayed out of Maidana’s way when he was attempting to finish off a badly hurt Khan in the last three rounds.

“I have to win this fight to be at the level people are talking about,” Khan said. “Not just win it, but win in good style. It’s all about sticking to the game plan.”

If Khan wants to impress the boxing fans watching the fight, he’d do well to keep his hands off of Alexander and just fight him in a normal manner. All this pulling down on the head, shoving and head-locks Khan likes to put his opponents in is really off putting for a lot of fans to watch.

Further, Khan’s habit of running around the ring also isn’t crowd pleasing. He moves too much, and acts like he has no confidence in his chin. It’s hard to get excited about a fighter that holds, shoves, pulls down on his opponent’s heads, and puts them in head-locks all night long. If Khan can resist the urge turn the fight into an ugly to watch MMA affair, then he has a very good chance of impressing the boxing fans. But, if Khan fights Alexander in the same way he did against Luis Collazo, then I don’t see Khan getting the Mayweather fight even if he wins.

“After I win this fight against Alexander I think people are going to demand that I get a fight with Mayweather,” Khan said.

Again, I believe the only way that fans are going to demand a Khan-Mayweather fight is if Khan fights Alexander without resorting to his illegal tricks. If Khan can beat Alexander without fouling and running then I definitely see fans getting excited about a Mayweather-Khan fight. But I have serious doubts that Khan can beat Alexander without turning the fight into a ugly to watch MMA affair.



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