Marquez says Canelo-Khan is a mismatch

By Boxing News - 02/12/2016 - Comments

Image: Marquez says Canelo-Khan is a mismatchBy Dan Ambrose: Juan Manuel Marquez is giving Amir Khan (31-3, 19 KOs) no chance of beating the heavier and stronger Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (46-1-1, 32 KOs) in their fight on May 7 on HBO pay-per-view.

Marquez thinks Canelo will stop Khan when he decides to. Marquez feels that Khan will need to move constantly in the fight, because as soon as he stops moving, it’ll be over for him. Marquez sees Khan’s fragile chin as being his undoing in this fight. Without the ability to take Canelo’s heavy power shots, Khan will wind up losing, according to Marquez.

Marquez isn’t infallible with his opinions obviously, and we could find out very quickly on May 7th that Khan is going to clown Canelo in the same way that Floyd Mayweather Jr. did in his win over the Mexican fighter in 2013. We are talking about a flat-footed fighter in Canelo with limited hand speed and a padded record. Canelo is the same fighter that many boxing feel should have two additional losses on his record to Erislandy Lara and Austin Trout.

“When Canelo is decided will end the fight, his speed and power will do it,” Marquez said to ESPN Deportes. “Amir Khan is a fighter that if you see the jaw drops and that’s a plus for Canelo. It is an uneven fight. Canelo is great. Amir Khan…will go up two divisions. This a big advantage for the Mexican because Khan cannot stand still. He moves well in the ring and when stops, it is going to end; not only that but when Canelo decides to end the fight.”

I fail to see where Canelo is a great fighter like Marquez says he is. Canelo is a good basic fighter, but definitely not great. If Canelo were a great fighter, he wouldn’t have lost to Mayweather, and he wouldn’t have the controversy following him like skunks from his fights against Lara and Trout.

I see Canelo as another Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. fighter. In other words, a guy that boils down 20+ pounds from the higher weights to fight in a weight class that has lighter fighters than himself. By fighting at his favorite catch-weight of 155lbs, Canelo gets an advantage over his opponents. I do not see that as greatness. I see that as someone who knows how to game the system. Could you imagine if there were catch-weights in the NFL? Your opponent had to come down to a weight that you were good at making before you could play them.

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“Khan can move well in the ring but it is a difficult challenge for him,” Marquez said. “Canelo has learned and evolved. If Amir Khan is set to exchange [with Canelo], he will end up knocked out,” said Marquez.

It’s obvious that Khan cannot stop and exchange with Canelo, because he’s probably going to be outweighed by 25 pounds in the ring on fight night on May 7 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. However, Khan has a great jab and the kind of hand speed that can dazzle Canelo all night long.

Canelo is slower than the guys that Khan has been fighting, and this could be a real mismatch in terms of hand speed. Khan can land his right hands and jabs all night long, and I don’t think Canelo will be able to do much about it other than take the shots to the head and be too slow to respond back with his own.

What you have to remember about the 25-year-old Canelo is he does not like to be hit, especially by clean shots. I think Khan is going to unnerve Canelo when he starts catching him with lightning fast punches, and this is going to put Canelo into a shell.

Instead of using his 20+-pound weight advantage to walk Khan down, Canelo is going to go into a shell like a turtle and try to counter punch all night long. That is not going to work against a fighter like Khan, because he will get his shots in first and then move away before Canelo has had a chance of landing one of his counter punches. I think Khan is going to wind up making Canelo look silly in the ring for 12 long rounds.



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