Mayweather talks Canelo-Khan fight

By Boxing News - 02/17/2016 - Comments

floyd5By Dan Ambrose: Floyd Mayweather Jr. is on the fence when it comes to picking the winner for the May 7 fight between WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Amir Khan. While Mayweather feels that the 25-year-old Canelo has improved since he gave him his first and only defeat of his career in September 2013, he notes that Khan has been on a winning streak recently.

Mayweather says that Khan walks around at 165lbs. That’s not too far off from the weight that Canelo will be coming into this fight at unless he balloons up to the 180s. That’s always possible, but many boxing fans think he’ll come in between 170 to 175.

Canelo has won his last four fights since his loss to Mayweather. Canelo has beaten Alfredo Angulo, Erislandy Lara, James Kirkland and Miguel Cotto. Mayweather evidently was impressed with Canelo’s wins over Angulo, Kirkland and Cotto. Those were clearly much better performances from Canelo than his fight against Lara in 2014, which many fans felt Lara deserved to be given the decision.

“Oh, he [Khan] walks around heavy. He walks around like 165, so I’m just saying, what you have to realize is this, you know, with going into that fight, anything can happen,” Mayweather said to Fighthype.com about Khan. “You can never overlook anyone, but, I must say, judging from how Canelo has been looking, you know, and I know Amir Khan has been on a winning streak, so we can’t really say. I was about to say something, but you can’t really say how a fight is going to play out because styles make fights. But Canelo, I mean, he’s looking better. He’s looking a lot better.”

It would be a big blow to Mayweather’s mystique if Khan were able to beat Canelo just like he did. If Khan can beat Canelo and make him look like the same flat-footed fighter that Mayweather beat, then it would show to many boxing fans that Mayweather wasn’t as good as people thought he was. If Khan can beat Canelo too, then it would show that what Mayweather did wasn’t all that special. Canelo has limited foot speed, reach and boxing ability. If Khan can follow the game plan that Mayweather developed, then it’s possible that we’ll see Canelo get beaten for a second time.

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The weight of the two fighters could prove to be crucial in this fight. If Khan can really come into the fight in the mid-160s, then he’ll definitely have a chance of winning if Canelo weighs in between 170-175. If Canelo rehydrates into the 180s, however, then I think it’s going to be impossible for Khan to win.

15 to 20 pounds is a ton of weight for the middleweight division, and I don’t think Khan could beat anyone that much bigger than him. I think Khan can handle 10 pounds at the most. But if Canelo walks into the with a 15-20-pound weight advantage, then I think that’ll be too much weight for Khan to deal with. The impact of Canelo’s punches will be much heavier than Khan’s punches if Canelo is sporting a huge weight advantage like many fans expect him to.



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