Berto: Khan has what it takes to win against Canelo

By Boxing News - 04/28/2016 - Comments

berto8(Photo credit: Premier Boxing Champions) By Dan Ambrose: Andre Berto is picking Amir “King” Khan (31-3, 19 KOs) to defeat WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (46-1-1, 32 KOs) in their fight on May 7.

The two fighters have less than two weeks to go for their big fight on HBO PPV, and it’s going to be interesting to see which of these two will come out on top. Canelo is the clear favorite in this fight, but that doesn’t mean a whole lot because Canelo was made to look silly by Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2013, and Canelo didn’t look any better against the only fighter with reasonably fast hands that he’s faced since then in Erislandy Lara.

The relity is that Canelo just does not fight well against guys with hand and foot speed. I don’t think that’s going to ever change. Canelo is the same type of fighter that his brothers Ramon and Rigoberto are. They both struggle with guys with hand speed. They do well against stationary fighters with limited hand speed and power.

“I think he [Khan] has what it takes to win,” Berto said to Fighthub about Khan having the talent to defeat the bigger, stronger Canelo. “He’s fast as hell. He’s got leg movement and he throws a lot of punches. He throws punches in bunches. As long as he stays out of harm’s way, because Canelo has the kind of punch that he can finish you. I think they understand that and know that. He’s [Khan] sharp and I think he has what it takes. He throws a lot of punches real quick. I’m a lot more explosive on the first punch. A lot of people say I’m a little quicker,” said Berto.

If Khan can get his shots off and keep moving around the ring all night long, he could win the fight. Canelo is going to be trying to do his best imitation of Gennady Golovkin by attempting to cut off the ring. The problem that Canelo has is he’s got short legs and a huge wrestler’s upper body. Wresters don’t move very well because their short legs.

Asking Canelo to cut off the ring is pretty much impossible because he’s simply not built to do that. The only thing Canelo can do is try and land body shots while Khan moves, and load up on the punches that he can catch him with.

You can bet that Canelo will be putting everything he has in all of his shots in hopes of knocking Khan out with one of them. If Canelo misses 99% of his punches and is made to look like an unskilled clod by Khan, he can still get the last laugh if he can score a knockout with a big shot that he does land.

Mayweather used his long reach and fast jab to keep Canelo well contained on the outside. Khan doesn’t have the same type of jab as Mayweather. When Khan is jabbing, he’s generally in range of his opponent’s shots. His trainer Virgil Hunter will need to have taught Khan to throw a jab while keeping his head back as far as possible so that it’ll be out of the range of Canelo’s shots.

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One thing that people forget is how hard Khan hits. I think people are forgetting that Canelo could be vulnerable to Khan’s shots just as much as Khan’s vulnerable to Canelo’s. If Canelo forgets himself and just storms straight into Khan’s shots, he might wind up getting stunned and knocked out.

Mayweather had Canelo hurt when he made the mistake of fighting with his back against the ropes earlier in their fight. If Mayweather was able to hurt Canelo, then Khan can too.