Haye: Khan beats Canelo on points

By Boxing News - 02/29/2016 - Comments

haye556666By Scott Gilfoid: Former two division world champion David Haye is picking Amir Khan (31-3, 19 KOs) to defeat the bigger WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (46-1-1, 32 KOs) on May 7. Haye says he saw both fighters side by side, and he said they were both of identical size.

Haye saw no difference in the size of the two fighters, and he believes that Canelo is basic and an easy style for Khan to defeat. Haye believes that with Khan moving up in weight from welterweight, his chin will be better because he won’t need to boil down as much to make weight like he was doing when he was at 147.

Khan will need to take some weight off because the catch-weight for the Canelo fight is at 155lbs, and Khan plans on coming into the fight at 165lb. Haye says that Khan stripped down from 170 to fight at 147, and he thinks that the loss of weight is really hard for him.

“It don’t get any bigger than this,” Haye said to IFL TV about the Khan-Canelo fight. “He’s fighting a full-fledged, seasoned linier champion, WBC middleweight champion at middleweight, two weights above his usual weight. The guys [Canelo] bigger than him. The guy has campaigned at middleweight. I think everybody is putting too much emphasis on the weight thing. Amir is actually bigger than Canelo. He’s taller than him. I’ve seen them together. I genuinely think we haven’t seen the best of Amir Khan. I was with Amir Khan in Dubai and he was just under 170 pounds, and he was ripped. He had no fat on him. I said ‘how in the hell did you get down to 147? How did you do it?’ He said, ‘It’s really tough.’ So when he got stopped by [Danny] Garcia, maybe he got stopped because his legs were gone because he was boiled down. I’m going to put a lot of money on Amir Khan points win,” said Haye.

It might be the weight of Canelo that will give Khan so much trouble, but rather than impact of his bigger shots. Khan is going to be getting harder than he’s ever been hit before. The biggest punchers that Khan has faced thus far as a pro were Danny Garcia at 140 and Breidis Prescott at 135. Both guys knocked Khan out inside the distance. Canelo will probably rehydrate into the 170s for the fight, and his punches will have a lot of power behind them. I doubt that Khan is going to be able to take Canelo’s shots for long if he’s able to get his punches off and connect with them.

“A lot of people are saying he’s going to get knocked out early or knocked out late,” said Haye. “It ain’t happening. He’s winning this fight on points. I’m so sure of it. Everyone has got it wrong. Seriously. The only person that can match Mayweather for speed is Amir Khan. The only person on the planet. That’s why I always wanted Amir to fight Mayweather. He’s the only one that can test him. That’s the reason that fight can’t ever happen. The same thing with Manny Pacquiao. I’ve seen Manny spar. This is an easier fight than the Pacquiao fight. Watch on fight night. There’s no difference in size [between Khan and Canelo]. Forget that Khan’s been stopped at welterweight. He’s going to be at a weight he’s never been,” said Haye.

I wonder if Haye’s close friendship with Khan is clouding his judgement about the Canelo-Khan fight. I’m just saying. With Haye being good friends with Khan, it might be a situation where Haye has a lot of wishful thinking when it comes to giving a prediction about the fight. I mean, Haye is at least sort of going in the right direction by thinking Khan will win by a decision rather than a knockout, but I think he’s potentially backing the wrong horse in this race. Canelo is the fighter that many fans are selecting as the winner in this fight. Haye is going off in a completely different direction from what most people think about this fight.

It’s good that Khan won’t be over-matched in terms of size, but he’s still going to need to be on his bike all night if he wants to win. If Khan decides that he’s big enough to trade with Canelo, then I see him getting knocked out quickly. Canelo hits too hard and Khan isn’t used to being hit by someone as big and as powerful as him.



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