Khan not sure if he wants Golovkin if he defeats Canelo

By Boxing News - 02/11/2016 - Comments

khan56By Scott Gilfoid: Amir “King” Khan (31-3, 19 KOs) isn’t too sure whether he should keep going at middleweight if he defeats WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (46-1-1, 32 KOs) on May 7 in their catch-weight fight at 155lbs. If Khan defeats Canelo, he would be forced to defend his WBC middleweight title in his next fight against WBC mandatory challenger Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (34-0, 31 KOs).

While Khan is good with fighting the “flat-footed” Canelo, as he describes him, he does not seem too eager to step inside the ring and face Golovkin in what could be his next fight. In other words, there are limits to how far Khan wants to go in the middleweight division.

Fighting a flawed, slow-footed Canelo is something that Khan is not that worried about. But fighting a guy with one punch-power like Golovkin, that seems to be a step too far for Khan.

“I don’t know. I mean, that could be something tough,” Khan said to Fighthype.com about fighting Golovkin.” I mean, I’m not naturally a middleweight, but who knows. I’m going to see how my body feels. I’ve got 12 weeks until the fight, so I’m still in training. Let’s see how my body copes with this. I might be a good fighter at middleweight, you know, so it might just work for me, but it might not work for me.”

I smell fear coming from Khan. I don’t think he wants any part of Golovkin. Fighting Canelo is one thing, but going a step further in terms of talent, it doesn’t appear that Khan wants to go in that direction.

I guess I can’t blame Khan. Golovkin has the kind of power that will knock you clean out. The last thing that Khan needs is to be knocked clean out by Golovkin, and then having headaches and whatever else coming from being on the receiving end of a vicious KO.

“I think my ideal weight is light middleweight, with the height and with the power, reach, and everything,” Khan said. “That works for me. Sometimes moving down a weight all the time dehydrates you. You know, that punch resistance is not the same when you kill yourself making the weight, and I’ve always, always, always killed myself making the weight, so let’s see what naturally works for Amir Khan.”

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At 154, Khan would probably do well against the WBO champion Liam Smith. I could see Khan winning that fight easily. However, I do not think Khan would do well against IBF champion Jermall Charlo or WBA champion Erislandy Lara. The WBC 154lb title is currently vacant, but for Khan to win that bell, he would need to fight Jermell Charlo, and that would be a tough fight for Khan.

Jermell does not have the same punching power as his brother Jermall Charlo, but he is still a good puncher, and he seems to be sitting down on his punches a little more than he did before. It would be a tough fight for Khan because Jermell is faster than Canelo and can do a lot more things.

“Look, I know I can win this fight [against Canelo] regardless of the weight,” Khan said. “When he fought Mayweather, they had no clause in to say next day weight.”

Mayweather fought a smart fight against Canelo in 2013, and that is the reason why he won. Mayweather took very few chances in the fight, and did a good job of keeping the action at the distance. When Canelo did start coming on in the 9th round, Mayweather got on his bike and was able to jab and move his way to a decision.

Canelo put a lot of heat on Mayweather in the last four rounds. Khan would need to stay on the move if Canelo put similar pressure on him because I do not think he would do well if Canelo caught up to him and landed something big. Mayweather took a big right hand from Canelo in the 9th round of that fight, and after that, Mayweather played it safe the remainder of the fight. He did not want to stand in front of Canelo in the pocket anymore after taking that shot. The punch that Canelo landed against Mayweather in the 9th round likely would have knocked Khan out, I think.



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