By Dan Ambrose: Amir Khan’s former trainer Freddie Roach says he thinks Khan (31-3, 19 KOs) should have taken the easier fight against IBF welterweight Kell Brook rather than facing the much bigger and more talented WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (46-1-1, 32 KOs) on May 7.
The Canelo-Khan fight was announced earlier Tuesday and it will be televised on HBO pay-per-view. Roach feels that it is a potentially bad match-up for Khan to be facing a guy the size and talent level of Canelo. Roach thinks that Khan will need to fight the absolute perfect fight for him to come up with a victory against Canelo.
Roach says that Khan should have taken the fight against Brook because it would have enabled him to become a big deal in the U.S.
“Well, he was offered Kell Brook and Kell Brook would be a great win, and I don’t think Kell Brook’s quite as good as this opponent [Canelo],” Roach said to Fighthub. “Kell Brook is a good fighter, yes, but he’s not as good as the opponent that he picked [Canelo]. I think he would’ve been better off fighting the Kell Brook. He’d be a bigger star in his home country. But if he wins this one, this’ll put him on the map worldwide.”
You can understand why Khan chose the Canelo fight. By fighting Canelo, Khan can get a nice payday in a roll of the dice type of fight, and he will not be humiliated near as bad if he is beat by him than he would if he faced Brook and lost that fight.
Getting beat by Canelo does not have the same kind of repercussions for Khan that a loss to Brook does because Canelo is a middleweight and Khan a welterweight. Brook definitely is not in the same league as Canelo. Brook is a good fighter, but he is definitely not in the same class as Canelo. Brook would obviously take a fight against Canelo if it were offered to him, but he’s not a well-known enough name to be given the same opportunity Khan has been given by his old promoters at Golden Boy Promotions.
“It’ll be difficult for 36 minutes, because Khan still has a tendency to stay in the pocket too long sometimes,” Roach said. “That’s why when I was working with him, we were working on getting out of the pocket quicker. He does have foot speed and he is a great athlete, but to do it for 36 minutes, it’ll be very, very difficult. This guy is strong. He’s got to pitch a perfect game, for sure.”
I would also like to thank @OscarDeLaHoya @GoldenBoyBoxing @Canelo for the fantastic opportunity 🇬🇧💥🇲🇽 #CaneloKhan pic.twitter.com/JMeeSkr8th
— Amir Khan (@AmirKingKhan) February 2, 2016
Roach is probably right about Khan needing to fight the perfect fight to beat Canelo. Khan has a chin problem, and he fights in a foolish manner much of the time. In Khan’s last fight against Chris Algieri last May, Khan was struggled from Algieri’s pressure.
If a limited fighter like Algieri was able to almost beat Khan, then you have to imagine that Canelo will be able to stop Khan with his pressure. Canelo would slice through a weak puncher like Algieri like a hot butter knife slicing through butter.
We saw Floyd Mayweather Jr. use his hand speed and movement to clown Canelo in their fight in 2013. Honestly, Canelo hasn’t changed much since that fight. He’s still the same plodding fighter with the same slow feet. The only difference I can see now from the Canelo that fought in 2013 is he seems to be heavier now by at least 15 pounds. Canelo fought Mayweather in the upper 160s.
Canelo now looks like he’s in the 180s. Being that big is going to make Canelo very dangerous for Khan to deal with, because he doesn’t have the size to handle a light heavyweight like Canelo. The only thing that Khan can do is to make sure he hits and moves all night long. Khan has a faster right hand than Mayweather and a better jab. If he can nail Canelo while leaning backwards to avoid his counter shots, he can then move away quickly to keep from getting countered.
Khan will need to make sure he lands enough punches so that the judges can’t take the win away from him. We Erislandy Lara only get hit with a few body shots in each round by Canelo, and yet the judges still gave Canelo the win. This tells me that Khan will need to be very busy if he wants to keep from getting robbed too.
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