Mosley: Khan is making a mistake in bulking up

By Boxing News - 02/27/2016 - Comments

mosley100By Dan Ambrose: Former three division world champion Sugar Shane Mosley thinks Amir Khan (31-3, 19 KOs) is going about it the wrong way in getting ready for his title shot against WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (46-1-1, 32 KOs) on May 7 on HBO pay-per-view.

Khan, 29, has been bulking up since the 155lb catch-weight fight with the Mexican star Canelo was first announced several weeks ago for the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Khan proudly states that he’s going to be 165lbs by the time he finishes bulking up. Khan believes that the added weight will make him more competitive with Canelo, who might come into the fight in the 170s or 180s.

We’ll likely never know for sure if Canelo chooses not to be weighed by the HBO stage before he steps inside the ring against Khan. The best policy would be for Khan to assume that Canelo will be in the 180s, because he looked bigger than he’s ever looked before in his last fight in November against Miguel Cotto. Canelo’s previous high weight was 175, but he looked bigger than that against Cotto.

“To fight a guy like Canelo, you’re having problems with punches at 147,” Mosley said to Fighthype. “Canelo fights at 154, but he’s actually a 160 pounder. You saw that he was a lot bigger than Miguel Cotto when they fought. He can really fight at 160. So to fight a guy like that, a big guy, and your chin is really not as good as it’s supposed to be, that’s a problem. But Khan is very fast, and he’s very tricky at times. He can run in and he throws very fast combinations. He’s tall in the welterweight and junior middleweight divisions, but he’s not tall in the middleweight division. I’ve seen [recent] pictures of him,” said Mosley.

It’s true that Khan has had problems with the power of different fighters during his career, but that was at 140. He didn’t have problems with the power of anybody at 147. You can argue that part of Khan’s problems taking big power shots was because he was fighting initially at too low a weight at 135, when he lost to Breidis Prescott in a 1st round knockout in 2008. Khan later moved up to 140, and was knocked out by Danny Garcia in 2012 in a 4th round stoppage.

That was a bad weight class too for Khan, because he was unnaturally at too low a weight. But since Khan has moved up to 147, he’s had no problems whatsoever. In moving to 155, I think is going to find his perfect weight. He should be able to take any punch that Canelo lands because he has more cushion to absorb blows compared to before when he was fighting at 140.

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At 155, Khan will take whatever blows that Canelo is able to land on him, and he’ll fire back with fast shots that will give Canelo a lot of problems. Canelo is not used to fighting fast fighters. We saw what happened to Canelo in his fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2013. He got dominated by him.

“It looks like he’s been doing a lot of lifting. He looks pretty big, but being big doesn’t equate to punching power, to how hard you hit. It just makes you more physically stronger,” said Mosley. “But is he going to be that much more physically stronger when he fights Canelo, because Canelo is already a big boy and he’s already strong. He doesn’t have to lift weights or anything. This is who he is. Man, it’s going to be hard for Khan to make it past the fifth round. The advice I’d give to Khan is to use your feet, use your legs, stay moving, throw your combinations and stay fast. Don’t try to be a big man and punch with him. You might have a little punching power. You might be able to sting him, and catch him off guard every now and then, but you’re not a big man. Stay on your toes, use your speed. Getting big and bulking up and stuff, that’s going to do nothing but slow you down. Stop lifting weights and all that extra physical stuff, because that’s not going to help you,” said Mosley.

I think Khan has put on just a little weight, and not as much as some people think he has. In the photo on Khan’s Instagram page, he looked like he was flexing in a lat-lock, which made him look bigger than he actually is. Earlier tonight during the Carl Frampton vs. Scott Quigg broadcast from Manchester, UK, Khan looked no bigger than he’s been before. There no increased size. It just looked like the normal Khan, who walks around at 160 in between fights.

“If anything, do more neck exercises and keep your legs strong so you can move. Your legs don’t look too big,” said Mosley. “Your upper body looks bigger. Your legs need to be bigger so you can move, throw combinations, and win a unanimous decision. If you’re fast, then you can throw more punches. Canelo’s fast, Canelo’s tricky. So you’ve got to be extra fast like you normally are. What I’m looking at, you started off wrong by trying to be as big as Canelo. Don’t try to be as big as Canelo. Don’t worry about that. Be faster than him. Be smarter than him. That’s going to be your key to victory with Canelo. It’s very slim, but that’s going to be your chance. If Amir beats Canelo, he’ll be a super star instantly. For him to get out of the fight without getting knocked out or to just get out of the fight, period, I would just take my hat off to him. You did a great job,” Mosley said.

Khan will be fine, because he’s not going to be able to put on a lot of weight before May 7. That’s not much time from now, and Khan will be doing too much exercises for him to bulk up much. I can’t see him putting on more than two or three pounds at best.



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