Mosley not in favor of Khan fighting in Olympics

By Boxing News - 06/04/2016 - Comments

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By Scott Gilfoid: Former three division world champion “Sugar” Shane Mosley isn’t in favor of welterweight contender Amir Khan fighting in the 2016 Olympics in Rios. Khan, 29, recently told the media that he’s interested in fighting in the summer Olympics this year for Pakistan.

This bit of news didn’t go well with a lot of boxing fans, especially fans from the UK, as Khan lives over there and he fought and he represented Britain in the 2004 Olympics. Khan won a silver medal in that Olympics.

A lot of boxers would be more than happy to have received a silver medal in the Olympics because that at least showed that Khan was the second best fighter in that competition.

Khan was knocked out in the 6th round in his last fight by Mexican superstar Saul “Canelo” Alvarez last month. Coming back from a KO loss like that to take part in the Olympics would be inviting trouble for Khan. It would mean that Khan would need to get back into the ring soon, and he would need to lose weight so that he could get back down to 147 because he couldn’t dehydrate to make weight for six days of Olympic competition.

“I don’t think after getting knocked the f*** out Khan should be talking about representing anyone,” said Mosley to TMZ.com.

Mosley is right. Khan shouldn’t be looking to fight in the Olympics after the way he was knocked out by Canelo. That would be potentially a risky move on Khan’s part because he would be getting hit a lot by faster and younger fighters than himself. With the bouts being shorter, Khan would need to fight at a fast pace for three minutes of every round. He would get hit a lot, and that could lead to him getting blasted out again if he hasn’t fully recovered from his KO loss to Canelo. It might be better for Khan to take the remainder of 2016 off to rest from his knockout loss to Canelo.

Even if Khan didn’t get knocked out in the Olympics, I still think he would have a lot of problems with the talented fighters from Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Cuba. Those countries tend to have very good fighters. I don’t know that Khan could beat the top amateurs around the world. It would make Khan look bad if talented amateur schooled him.

There is little to gain for Khan in fighting in the Olympics, because he won’t get much credit even if he were to capture a gold medal. I don’t think Khan would win a gold medal. That’s the problem. I see him losing and then taking major criticism.

I’m not in favor of professional fighters taking part in the Olympics. Yeah, I know that countries like Cuba have guys that are the equivalent of professionals due to them not having the option of turning pro. The Cubans stay amateurs until they end their careers. However, Khan is already a professional fighter, and it would be a backwards move for him to return to the Olympics after having already taken part in that competition 12 years ago in 2004.