Malignaggi: Canelo-Khan is a waste of time

By Boxing News - 02/06/2016 - Comments

1-canelo 2By Tim Fletcher: Former two division world champion Paulie Malignaggi doesn’t like the recently announced fight between WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Amir Khan. Malignaggi sees the contest as a mismatch due to Canelo’s huge weight and punching power advantage. Malignaggi sees it as a waste of time for the fight to take place because he doesn’t think Khan will be able to make it past the sixth round due to Canelo’s advantage in size and power.

Malignaggi thinks that Khan could get potentially badly hurt in this fight if he gets knocked out cold by the 25-year-old Canelo, and he believes there’s a possibility that Khan will never be the same fighter after this bout is over with.

Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya was the one mentioned the idea of Canelo fighting Khan when he brought the idea up to Khan. However, De La Hoya didn’t force Khan to agree to it. Khan did that on his own, as he wanted to fight a huge boxing star and he’d been recently rejected by both Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. for big money fights. You can argue that De La Hoya approached Khan at just the right time when he was in the frame of mind where he would be more prone to agree to the Canelo fight.

“I feel that weight classes should be respected a lot more,” Malignaggi said to Fighthype. “It’s a tough situation to win and you can get hurt. From Canelo’s standpoint, it’s not much of a risk of a fight. Just because you put two big names in with one another doesn’t mean they should be fighting each other because they’re in vastly different weight classes. Canelo, already being a big puncher, and now he’s fighting a smaller guy. I think his punching power can be even more devastating,” said Malignaggi.

Canelo has been fighting a lot of smaller guys than himself for a while now. This isn’t something new for him. He’s fought a lot of smaller guys like Alfonso Gomez, Shane Mosley, Kermit Cintron, Lovemore N’dou, Josesito Lopez, Floyd Mayweather Jr., Jose Miguel Cotto, Matthew Hatton, and Miguel Cotto. A fight between Canelo and Khan is almost the norm for Canelo, because he’s had so many fights where he’s been the bigger guy.

You can argue that a large degree of Canelo’s success in the sport derives from him fighting lighter guys than himself. What’s interesting is that now that Canelo has moved up to middleweight, he’s using a catch-weight of 155lbs instead of fighting at the full weight of 160. Just how long Canelo will use this tool is unknown. He doesn’t need the catch-weight because he’s been rehydrating well into the 170s. Some boxing fans believe that Canelo will be using the catch-weight to weaken the middleweights that he’ll eventually be facing in the division.

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“[This fight] Is putting people in the position where they can get hurt,” Malignaggi said about the Canelo-Khan fight. “I don’t like the fight. You can put guys in danger when you do this. You’re looking at a fight that could go fewer than six rounds. People look at Floyd Mayweather at what he did with Canelo. Floyd disarms you by slowing the pace and changing the look in so many different ways. Amir has no way of buying himself time. He gives you just one look all the time [the high guard]. This is a physical guy, Canelo. One thing I can see is Amir’s jab bothering Canelo, but even then, Amir’s not a junior middleweight or middleweight. The fact that Amir is the small man will enable Canelo to push him down and beat him up. Amir, he doesn’t fight well going backwards at all. Walking that tight rope is so difficult, and I don’t think Amir can do it. Eventually, he’s going to get clipped. Once he gets hurt, he’s not going to be able to hold on because he’s too small to try and hold onto a guy like Canelo. He’ll push him off and rip him,” said Malignaggi.

There’s no question that if Canelo hurts Khan, it’ll be all over for Khan. He won’t be able to use his clinching skills to try and clear his head, because Canelo will easily shuck him off and finish him. The moment that Khan gets hurt in the fight, it’s going to be over with for him. We’ve seen Khan hurt in past fights where his legs go wobbly on him.

The only fight where Khan was able to survive under those conditions was his contest with Marcos Maidana in 2010. You can argue that Khan would have been knocked out in that fight if the referee Joe Cortez hadn’t put himself in between Maidana and Khan so many times after Maidana had Khan hurt in the 10th. It was the strangest fight you’ll ever see. Maidana had Khan out on his feet and Cortez kept getting in between and preventing Maidana from ending the fight. I don’t think we’d see a similar situation if Canelo had Khan hurt. I think Canelo would quickly finish Khan.

“If you box Amir, it’s going to be difficult, but I don’t think Canelo is going to box,” Malignaggi said. “He’s such a bigger guy. He hits very hard. He hits hard for a junior middleweight, let alone for a guy that is a super lightweight like Amir Khan. They make weight classes for a reason, and I think this fight is a waste of time. It’s easy pickings for him [Canelo], and it keeps him moving in the right direction. It’s a safe fight against a guy that is very well known in Amir Khan. Amir’s height has nothing to do with it. He’s not a guy that should be fighting Canelo Alvarez. What if you get knocked out cold and you’re not the same again? What if you get hurt? This is what people that made this fight aren’t thinking about,” Malignaggi said.

Khan has already said that he plans on studying the Mayweather blueprint in how to beat Canelo. Mayweather didn’t do much to beat Canelo other than jab, move and throw occasional right hands and left hooks. It was all single shots from Mayweather when he did throw power shots. Mayweather didn’t throw combinations against Canelo, because he obviously realized he could get countered if he tried that.

Khan would have to tone down his offense completely if he wants to fight like Mayweather, because Khan throws way too many flurries for him to get a victory over Canelo. A big part of Khan’s offense involves him throwing speedy combinations. Unfortunately, he can’t afford to do that against Canelo, because he’ll get countered if he does and knocked out. Khan will need to throw just jabs and single right hands for him to have a chance of beating Canelo.



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