By Dan Ambrose: Amir Khan (31-3, 19 KOs) is six days away from challenging the younger, bigger, and stronger WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (46-1-1, 32 KOs) next Saturday night on HBO pay-per-view at the T-Mobile Arena, in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Khan has bulked up for this fight and is said to be heavier than he’s ever been before. Khan said recently that he expects to be in the 160lbs on fight night. It should be easy for him to make the 155lb catch-weight that Canelo insisted on, and then rehydrated from five to 10 pounds to come into the fight in the 160s.
Canelo will likely be in the 170s, as he normally does. He might come in a little lower, but not too much lower. The lowest that Canelo can probably get down to without weakening himself is 167. Anything below that he’ll be giving up power, which is his main asset in his arsenal.
Canelo is a pretty good boxer and counter puncher, but it’s his power that sets him apart from the other fighters. We don’t know how good Canelo is though because many of his fights have taken place against lighter fighters than himself. Canelo still hasn’t fought Gennady Golovkin or the Charlo brothers despite those fights being the best opponents.
Khan is the underdog in this fight, and few boxing fans believe him capable of winning. Light heavyweight Andre Ward, who shares the same trainer in Virgil Hunter, admires Khan for taking the risk in facing a guy that is bigger than him. Ward thinks that people are assuming a lot of things about this fight in thinking that Canelo will win. He thinks there could be a surprise for the people who have picked against Khan.
“I think he’ll be fine,” Andre Ward said about Khan to Fighthype.com. “A lot of people are jumping to conclusions. You’ve got to let it play out. The kid is daring to be great. When you do that, sometimes you win and sometimes you lose, but you took the risk. You’ve got to respect that. No matter what happens next Saturday, you’ve got to respect that,” said Ward.
Khan has a game plan that Hunter has put together that they feel will lead them to victory over the 5’9” Canelo on Saturday. The game plan will likely involve Khan using his foot speed and a lot of single punches to pick the slower moving Canelo apart in the same way that we saw with Floyd Mayweather Jr. when he beat Canelo in 2013.
Mayweather threw almost exclusively single punches and mostly just jabs. When the crowd motivated Mayweather at times in the fight, he threw combinations, but he mostly stuck to single shots. Canelo couldn’t use his counter punching ability because he had nothing to play off of.
What Mayweather showed was Canelo is helpless if you only throw fast single punches to the head or body, and don’t standstill. The jab was Mayweather’s best weapon in the Canelo fight because it kept him from being able to throw his short left hook and straight right hands to counter him. Mayweather would throw his single shots after having stung Canelo with a jab to the head. Canelo wasn’t ready for a follow up right hand to the head.
“I feel very strong. I think it’s the strongest I’ve ever been for any fight,” said Khan to the mirror.co.uk. “That extra bit of weight has given me an edge in power. The speed is still there as well. It’s improved my stability. I am sparring 12 rounds with a lot of heavier guys. I know that when I’m in the fight it must be close to perfection. I can’t give him any free shots at all. I don’t think I’ll be stronger than Canelo but the speed is there and I’ll win the fight mentally. I’m going to shock the world. Watching Canelo fight, and seeing everything he does, I realized he’s not hard to beat really. For me, it won’t be a big shock because I know I can win.”
Khan will probably need to fight the perfect fight for him to have a chance of winning, because Canelo can end it with a single punch. This could be a repeat of Golovkin’s recent blowout win over Dominic Wade, or Andre Berto’s four-round destruction of Victor Ortiz. Wade and Ortiz both did a lot of talking before the fight, but when it came to them backing it up in the ring, they both came up short of the mark.
Khan is already talking rematch with Canelo. He feels that he’ll beat the 25-year-old, and then Canelo will use his rematch clause that he has in the contract to force an immediate rematch. Canelo would like the second fight to take place in the UK, but that’s probably no going to happen. Canelo and his promoters at Golden Boy Promotions will look to have the fight staged in the U.S., likely in Las Vegas.
“I’d love to fight back in Britain after this fight. It just depends on opponents,” Khan said. “We know that once we beat Canelo there might be a rematch. It might be hard to get back over to England. But my first choice would be to fight in England and put on a big show for the UK fans.”
That sounds good having the fight take place in the UK, because it would give Khan the opportunity to fight in front of a large crowd in a stadium. Khan vs. Canelo II is a stadium worthy fight that would possibly fill Wembley Stadium in London. Canelo would be at a disadvantage with 80,000 Khan fans in the stadium urging him on to win.
Khan has the talent to do a lot of the same things that Mayweather did to Canelo. If Khan can follow the plans that Hunter has for him, he could win. Hunter needs to make sure that he doesn’t have Khan taking any risks by throwing combinations and standing in one place for too longer, because that would be a bad move on his part if he tries that against the heavier Canelo.