Khan: I need my A-game against Algieri

By Boxing News - 05/14/2015 - Comments

khan85By Scott Gilfoid: Amir Khan (30-3, 19 KOs) has made no secret about him wanting to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr. in September, but he’s also not taking his concentration of getting ready for his May 29th fight against former WBO light welterweight champion Chris Algieri (20-1, 8 KOs) at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

Khan, 28, isn’t taking this fight seriously because he realizes that if he suffers a defeat against Algieri, he can then kiss goodbye any chances of him getting a f fight against Mayweather.

Khan isn’t one of those type of fighters that you can assume will win each time he steps inside the ring because he’s vulnerable when hit hard, and he doesn’t necessarily need to be facing a puncher for him to be at risk.

“Technically I think overall he’s a very good boxer, moves well,” Khan said about Algieri. “He makes a lot of fighters fall short. He’s very skillful. You have to be on your “A” game to beat him.”

Algieri is almost surely be working on his punching power in this training camp because that’s his best chance of winning the fight. He’s got to be able to score a knockout over Khan to have a chance of winning. We saw Julio Diaz wind up on the losing end of a controversial decision against Khan in 2013 in a fight in which Diaz knocked Khan down once and had him badly hurt three times.

It would be shocking if Algieri is able to knock Khan out like we saw with Danny Garcia and Breidis Prescott in the past. Khan was arguably knocked out by Willie Limond as well in their fight in 2007 when Khan was dropped in the 6th. He was down for a really long time before he got up from that knockdown.

“I’ve been watching a lot of videos like Provodnikov. Even the Pacquiao fight, there’s some good things he did there,” Khan said. “It could be dangerous for me coming into this fight if I’m not on my “A” game. Chris Algieri is a guy that if you make a mistake, he’s going to make you pay for it.”

Algieri can be tough when he loads up on his shots. Some of the punches that he hit Manny Pacquiao with last November looked like they would have dropped Khan. If Khan rushes forward, Algieri could knock him clean out with a perfectly timed right hand to the head. He’s got the power that comes from perfect timing, and Khan already has shown that he doesn’t have the greatest chin.

I don’t think Khan is going to get the Mayweather fight anyway even if he does beat Algieri, but if Khan loses this fight, then his dream of fighting Mayweather will be officially finished. Khan could still have a good career, but he would have to target other guys like Kell Brook for him to get his big fights instead of Mayweather.



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