By Adam Laiolo: Arrogance, is a dangerous characteristic to have. It can accompany you to the top, but only when it is backed up by sheer talent and determination. In hindsight it can blind you to mistakes and home truths and ruin you, whoever you are, reputation or not. Its brother, confidence, is the more humble characteristic, self belief in your own ability can add that extra 10% that some fighters just cannot muster, whatever the situation calls for. For a long time, myself and many other people believed Amir Khan had untold confidence in his own ability and utilized his strengths to accompany this.
Recently, it seems since defeating Gary St Clair in an albeit polished but unspectacular performance has gone from a confident young fighter to an arrogant loud and pretty naive fighter.
I watched Amir Khan through the Olympics, even in his defeat to the much more experienced Kindela you could see he had natural talent and I was sure I was witnessing the birth of the new torch bearer of Great Britain’s boxers. I still believe this, as a patriot and supporter of home grown talent, but I’m not blind to assume it’s a foregone conclusion. But when the recent clash with Breidis Prescott was announced I, like many, didn’t know anything about this Colombian powerhouse and believed it would be merely a formality. Seeing a record as formidable as his, worry set in and it came to no surprise as to the result, even the speed with which he was finished.
See Khan, believed he could go stand in front of someone who could punch through a brick wall, and his divine right to the top of the sport would see him through – the arrogance. Now the shock to the system of having his chin tested and well and truly rocked, would send people back to the drawing board and analyzing everything. Not Amir, whilst he has gone back to square one, you get the impression with the words he’s said he’s merely going to go back into to the gym and make sure next time that he’s first to the punch and can beat an offensive fighter by bettering his already excellent offensive skills. Sharpening an already sharp knife is pointless, only so sharp it can be.
What Amir needs to be able to slip and glide out of the way of the punches, defending and being evasive. Amir is not a compete fighter, his offense is mind blowing, but his defense leaves a lot to be desired. The Prescott fight wasn’t the wrong fight to choose, people (especially the British press) believe that now just because he lost. I disagree, I believe what Amir needed was someone to take him deep into the trenches, hurt him, test that chin and make him dig himself out of a hole with technical quality and movement. Instead he ran towards Prescott, for entertainment value I assume, and wanted to demonstrate that if anyone was the power puncher in that ring it was him. Prescott capitalized and just lay Amir out and all credit to Prescott, he did the job.
So what now for Amir Khan? Michael Lieberman would tell you he’s finished, never going to last and will fade into the oblivion of journeymen fighters. Amir needs to tighten everything up, we know now that his chin is not going to stand the biggest punchers, so he needs to plug those gaps in his defense and fight smart, not with the heart. A sense of realism could be needed to, a world title shot isn’t a year away, maybe two or three after beating varying styles of fighters and gaining experience in every situation possible so he is then equipped and can adapt.
I wouldn’t go for the rematch yet, id fight some hard hitters and out box them, even if it’s on points wins and close ones at that because he is still learning and mistakes can be rectified this early on in a career. But my advice to Amir would be to not jump in at the deep end before you can swim every type of stroke, take some testing fighters and complete your fighting package. Otherwise we’ll see what we saw in Prince Naseem Hamed – the undeniable talent but the arrogance of believing he was born to be the best.
Being born with the talent is half the ingredients, you need the work ethic, determination to better yourself as a fighter and the one thing to take you to where you strive to be – confidence.
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