Amir Khan needs to get back in the ring

By Boxing News - 07/05/2016 - Comments

Image: Amir Khan needs to get back in the ring

By Scott Gilfoid: Amir Khan (31-4, 19 KOs) hasn’t shown any indication that he’ll be fighting anytime soon since his brutal 6th round knockout loss to the hulking 170+ pound middleweight Saul “Canelo” Alvarez last May in their fight on HBO PPV from Las Vegas, Nevada. It’s starting to look like the 29-year-old Khan won’t be back at all for the remainder of 2016.

Granted, Khan suffered a pretty bad knockout loss to Canelo, but that shouldn’t keep him from getting back in the ring to continue fighting. When you get knocked down, you get back on the horse and stick with it. So what if he got knocked out. You didn’t see Sugar Ray Robinson taking it easy after he was beaten by Gen Fullmer and Carmen Basilio. Robinson came back quickly and beat both of them in rematches.

You don’t disappear for months at a time and wind up losing a year of your career. It’s not as if Khan has been the busiest fighter lately. Before Khan’s loss to Canelo, he’d been out of the ring for an entire year. It was exactly 12 months since Khan’s previous fight against Chris Algieri in May 2015.

In that fight, Khan showed the same stamina problems that we saw against Canelo last May. Khan looked good for around four rounds, and then ran out of gas and started taking head shots from Khan. It was the same thing we saw in his fight against Algieri.

I’m not surprised that Khan is starting to having stamina issues at this point in his career, because he’s not fighting on a regular enough basis for him to say in the shape he needs to for him to be able to fight hard 12 rounds. When you have problems with suffering knockouts, you’ve got to be able to move for 12 rounds to avoid getting nailed. Khan’s cardiovascular system needs more work obviously, and the way to do more work is for him to fight frequently and stay in the gym rather than traveling all over the world the way Khan is.

I think Khan is hitting the most crucial period of his pro career where he can either be sent into journeyman status with another loss, or he can show that he’s still a world class level fighter by whipping someone like WBC welterweight champion Danny Garcia. I don’t think for a second that Khan will be taking on a top contender when he does return to the ring. He should, but I don’t think he’s going to. When you suffer the kind of knockout that Khan suffered by Canelo last May, you want to bring him back slowly by putting him in with contenders to see if perhaps something was shaken loose in his brain housing. If Khan can no longer take a punch without dropping for the 10 count, you’d kind of like to know that before he gets thrown in there with someone like Danny Garcia.

I’m not too high on Garcia as a fighter, but I do think he can punch a little. That’s the main thing he has going for him is his power. If Khan is going to stay out of the ring for an entire year again before fighting Garcia for his WBC 147lb title, then I don’t see things going well for Khan. How can he do well with him fighting once a year?

Whether you want to admit it or not, Khan has become a part-time fighter just like Oscar De La Hoya was in final three years of his career. Some fighters do well with fighting once a year, but my guess is most of them don’t. They need to stay active and fight three times a year for them to be at their best. Not everyone can be like Miguel Cotto in fighting once a year and looking good despite the inactivity.

Khan’s game is built around his hand and foot speed. He’s not going to be able to keep his speed if he’s sitting out of the ring for a year at a time. Right now, it’s only been two months since Khan last fought, but believe me, that two months will soon stretch into six months and then 12 months.

When Khan does eventually come back to the ring, I don’t see him doing well, mainly because of all the time he’s been out of the ring. It won’t be due to Khan having been brutally knocked out by Canelo. You can’t expect a fighter that is traveling all around the world and staying out of the ring for ages to stay at the same level they were at earlier in their career when they were training all the time.