Khan: I want Danny Garcia fight

By Boxing News - 06/18/2016 - Comments

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By Dan Ambrose: Amir “King” Khan (31-4, 19 KOs) isn’t discouraged from his recently 6th round knockout loss to former WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez from last month on May 7. Khan now is hoping to bounce back with a title shot against WBC welterweight champion Danny “Swift” Garcia (32-0, 18 KOs) if he can get the fight.

The World Boxing Council has kept the 29-year-old Khan as the No.1 contender in their 147lb rankings despite his knockout loss to the much heavier Canelo Alvarez. It would seem that Khan’s main competition for a fight against Garcia is #2 WBC Andre Berto and former four division world champion Adrien “The Problem” Broner, who is moving up in weight from the light welterweight division after losing his WBA 140lb title on the scales for his fight against Ashley Theophane last April.

“I’d like to fight Danny Garcia because he has the WBC world title,” Khan said to the Saima Ajram show on BBC Asian Network. “I’m in the number one position for that title fight so I’d love to take that fight. If it happens, who knows? But that’s something I’m going to be chasing.”

Whether the Garcia vs. Khan fight takes place or not would be up to their mutual adviser Al Haymon. If Haymon wants to match Khan against Garcia right now, then it’s likely the fight will happen. However, Haymon might not want to move that chess piece right now because the timing isn’t right for a Khan-Garcia fight right now with Khan coming off a brutal knockout loss to the larger Canelo.

A smarter management move by Haymon would let Khan recover from his knockout loss for eight months, and then match him in a series of tune-up fights over a short period of time to get his confidence back. If Garcia is still the WBC welterweight champion a year from now, then Haymon should make that fight at that time. Right now, it would be bad for Khan to take the fight because he could potentially suffer another knockout loss, and that would sink his career.

When you see a fighter suffering back to back losses, it springs to mind the many other fighters in the past that have been knocked out over and over. Their careers tend to be finished for the most part once they start losing repeatedly by knockouts. Khan is too valuable of a chess piece to be managed in a reckless manner like that. That’s why it’s unlikely we’ll see Khan fighting a big puncher like Garcia anytime soon. If Haymon does give the green light for a Khan vs. Garcia fight in 2016, then it would be a good idea for Khan’s father to nix that idea.

Khan says he would be willing to fight Canelo Alvarez a second time, saying that he would “take a rematch with Canelo Alvarez any day. If he came down to my weight. He would never come to my weight. I don’t think it will ever happen again.”

The chances of the hulking Canelo being able to melt down to 147 are virtually zero. I think Canelo would be seriously risking his health if he did squeeze down to 147 to fight Khan a second time. It’s bad enough that Canelo is melting down from 175 to fight at his special catch-weight of 155lbs to fight welterweights and middleweights at that weight. But for Canelo to drain down an additional eight pounds to get to 147, I think it would dangerous for him.

We’re talking about Canelo dehydrating down 28 pounds of water weight to get to 147 to fight Khan. Canelo obviously wouldn’t make that move because he would likely plan the A-side game, saying that Khan would need to come up to 155 to fight at that weight again. If Khan asked for a rehydration limit to keep Canelo from rehydrating into the 170s, it’s hard to imagine Khan getting the fight with him. That would be a deal changer. But let’s be serious about this; Canelo isn’t going to fight Khan a second time, because there’s no audience for such a fight.

The fans would stay away from that fight because Canelo already proved that he was too big and strong for Khan. Canelo can’t afford to be seen as a big brute who picks on welterweights to beat instead of facing guys his own size like Gennady “GGG” Golovkin. If Canelo is smart, he won’t fight anymore welterweights for the remainder of his career.

There’s no one for Canelo to fight at 147 anyway right now, because the two best welterweights, Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr., have both left the sport and retired. Canelo can’t get the reputation as a guy that combs the welterweight division for his opponents rather than the middleweight division. Canelo might get away with picking out the smaller guys if he would at least fight the talented guys his own size like Golovkin and Daniel Jacobs, but unfortunately, he’s not doing that.