By Scott Gilfoid: Former world champion Erik Morales sees the Amir Khan vs. Saul “Canelo” Alvarez fight going no more than four rounds with Khan getting blasted out on May 7 in their fight on HBO PPV.
Morales likes Khan’s speed, but he thinks he’s got problems with his ability handle shots. Morales also sees Khan as having a problem with the weight. He’s moving up from welterweight to middleweight to take the fight against the 25-year-old Canelo at a catch-weight of 155lbs. That’s going to be an issue right off the bat, but with Canelo rehydrating up in weight, it’s going to be a problem for Khan.
The fact that Khan is moving up in weight will be a problem for him because he’s going to be facing a very, very big middleweight. Canelo might like to fight at 155, but he’s clearly a large middleweight in terms of weight.
Canelo is rehydrating into the mid-170s, and he may even be higher than that for the Khan fight. In his haste to get the Canelo fight, Khan made a crucial mistake in not getting a rehydration clause in the contract to keep Canelo from rehydrating over a certain amount. That was a major mistake on Khan’s part. Eddie Hearn, the promoter for IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook, was stunned at learning that Khan didn’t negotiate to have a rehydration limit in the contract.
With a rehydration limit, Khan could have in theory kept Canelo from rehydrating to more than 170s. That would have made the fight a little fairer. But without a rehydration limit, Canelo can rehydrate to 175 or higher and come into the fight with a monstrous weight advantage over Khan. It would be the equivalent of Canelo agreeing to fight light heavyweight Sergey Kovalev, and walking into the ring the much smaller guy compared to the big Russian fighter. Canelo would likely get blasted out quickly by Kovalev, I hate to say.
“It’s a difficult fight as it is difficult to determine whether the speed of Khan will give problems Canelo,” Morales said to ESPNdeportes.com. “It should be a game of cat and mouse spaces …He has the fight to go more than four rounds. Khan is long, difficult, but Canelo has the necessary weapons to be able to cut off the ring and trade.”
It’s just Morales’ opinion. He can’t see the future and know for sure that Canelo will blast Khan out in four rounds. However, what Morales says makes a great deal of sense because Khan is going to have a lot of problems with Canelo’s size and strength in this fight.
Nothing's more fun than doing what people say you can't do! 😏
— Amir Khan (@amirkingkhan) February 8, 2016
Khan doesn’t have great survival skills when hurt. He would need to be able to hold onto Canelo when he gets buzzed, and that might be difficult to do with Canelo being the heavier guy. Khan would need to hold on tight to Canelo to keep from getting shucked off and taken out with some hard shots.
“At the first exchange of blows, Khan will feel the force and I cannot see how he survives. He [Khan] is a super lightweight that has gone up to welterweight and he just got there. And now he’s going to super welterweight, but on the night he’s going to be facing a super middleweight,” Morales said. “Khan has a problem. He does not hold and is fragile.”
Morales is wrong on one point in talking about the weight division that Canelo will likely be on the night of the fight. Canelo probably won’t at super middleweight, which has a weight limit of 168. I see Canelo definitely in the light heavyweight division from 169 to 175. Further, I think there’s a very good chance that Canelo will be in the cruiserweight division on the night of the fight with Khan in weighing 176 or higher. Canelo obviously won’t go past the cruiserweight limit of 199lbs on the night of the fight, but I think there’s a good chance that Canelo will be 176 to 185 on the night of the fight with Khan. This means that Khan is going to need to throw only single shots and constantly move around the ring if he doesn’t want to wind up getting smashed by the bigger Canelo.
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