Khan nervous ahead of Lo Greco fight

By Boxing News - 04/13/2018 - Comments

Image: Khan nervous ahead of Lo Greco fight

By Allan Fox: Amir Khan (31-4, 19 KOs) is a little worried ahead of his comeback fight against Phil Lo Greco (28-3, 15 KOs) next week on April 21 in their 12 round fight on Sky Sports at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, England. If Khan loses this fight, it’s over for him. There’s no coming back from this.

Khan says he’s at the peak of his career at 31-year-old despite not having fought for two years, and coming off of a devastating 6th round knockout loss Saul Canelo Alvarez in May of 2016. Khan was knocked clean out by a right hand from former WBC middleweight strap holder Canelo in round 6 of that fight.

It was such a bad knockout to watch, and unfortunately for Khan, it was just one of a handful of equally bad knockouts he’s suffered. Lo Greco, 33, has been well chosen by Khan and his British promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing. Lo Greco has been deemed a safe pick for Khan to fight without worry of being knocked out. But even when a fighter has been vetted the way Lo Greco has, he still brings a certain amount of risk for a fighter with a major chin problem like Khan.

“I am a little bit nervous but I know my fitness is right, I’ve trained hard for this,” Khan said to skysports.com. I do feel a lot better than I did at 28. I’m 31 now, I’m at the peak of my career, I know I have a bit left in me to come back. I want to win another world title, that’s what keeps me going.”

Khan should be nervous. Lo Greco has a little bit of power, and if he lands one of his shots clean, he could knock him out. Lo Greco isn’t very fast of hand, but he’s a legitimate junior middleweight with more punching power than most of the guys that Khan has fought before during his career. The guys that Lo Greco has knocked out in the last six years have chins that are probably on par with Khan’s chin. Lo Greco has knockouts over there guys since 2012: Brandon Hoskins, Daniel Sostre, and Pablo Munguia.

Those aren’t good fighters obviously, but they’re punch resistance is probably the same as Khan.
The biggest obstacle for Khan in his comeback is the ring rust that he’s accumulated with his two years out of boxing. Khan is going to have to try and regain the form that he had many years ago, because he’s been having problems with his conditioning since his fight with Chris Algieri in May 2015. Algieri isn’t a big puncher, and yet he was able to walk Khan down and tire him out with his pressure in the second half of the fight. Khan also faded by the 5th round against Canelo Alvarez. Lo Greco has already noted how Khan got tired against Canelo and Algieri when being pressured by those two fighters, and he’s likely going to try and do the same thing to him.

Khan is trained by Joe Goosen now after his trainer Virgil Hunter had a medical scare.