By Chris Thomas: In an outcome that surprised few people, undefeated lightweight Amir Khan (16-0, 12 KOs) successfully defended his little known Commonwealth (British Empire) lightweight title last night, defeating an over-matched Gairy St. Clair (39-6-2, 17 KOs) by a lopsided 12-round unanimous decision at the ExCel Arena, Dockland, in London, England. With a six inch height advantage the 5’10” Khan had little trouble blasting out a commanding decision over the slower, limited St. Clair who could do little to match Khan’s vast speed and power advantage. The final judges’ scores were 120-108, 120-108 and 120-108, all for the 21 year-old Khan.
For those fans that like to see one-sided beat downs, this was the perfect fight to watch, for St. Clair, 33, didn’t belong in the same ring with Khan, as he was hit with a rain of punches from start to finish in the fight. Though, to his credit, St. Clair never quite on himself, continually plodding forward and trying to land big, winging shots, most of which either missed or were picked off by the gloves of Khan. If anything good could be said about St. Clair, it would probably be that his chin is truly first class, as he took an awful amount of punishment from Khan during the bout. Yet, St. Clair showed now signs of ever being stunned. By round nine, it was a hopeless situation for St. Clair, for he was badly behind in the fight and only had once chance to win, that by a knockout.
However, his lack of height and reach was a hindrance for him, because he couldn’t get in close enough to land his shots. When on the rare occasions that he did get a shot or two during the later rounds, Khan would immediately pay him back with a blistering combination of shots. In the end, St. Clair didn’t have the tools to compete with the young Khan, and ended up losing badly. Hopefully, with yet another easy fight behind him, Khan will decided to take on a B-level lightweight instead of the C-class fighters like this one.
At this point, Khan is still a question mark in terms of ability, as his chin doesn’t appear to be first class, and it’s unclear whether he’ll be able to take the power shots of the better fights once he does decided to move up. Whatever ever the case, even if he never amounts to anything, it’s fun to watch him beat up on the endless parade of C-level fighters that his management is putting him in with.