By William Mackay: I don’t know about you, but I think it won’t matter a hill of beans who trains Amir Khan (18-1, 14 KOs) from this point forward, he’ll be the same flawed fighter regardless of the interchangeable trainers that are switched in and out. In the latest boxing news, it appears that American trainer Freddie Roach may be taking over where Cuban Jorge Rubio left off. I doubt it will change a thing.

If anything, Khan will probably get starched even quicker than before, because Rubio was a defensive expert who specialized in teaching defensive fundamentals. Roach, from what I’ve heard, is more of an offensive trainer. Khan may be flawed defensively, but there’s nothing wrong with his offense at all. He’s got good hand speed and power, maybe even the best combination of overall offensive skills in the entire lightweight division. But, Khan’s defense, including some of his decision making in bouts, leaves a lot to be desired.

The latest search for a new trainer, the third for Khan since turning professional, came about after he was rudely stopped by unbeaten Colombian Breidis Prescott in the 1st round on September 6th. It was a case of Khan trying to mix it up with a dangerous puncher and then paying the price by getting stretched with a series of left hooks from Prescott. Although Khan probably wishes he hadn’t gone right after Prescott at the opening bell, which was a decision he made on his own, there was no going back once he was hurt. Prescott, an excellent finisher, made sure that Khan wasn’t going to be able to survive the initial knockdown by going after him immediately with additional left hooks as soon as Khan made it up off the canvas.

There was little chance, as hurt as he was, that Khan would make it out of the round. Sure enough, Prescott put the finishing touches on Khan with another big left hook, dropping a badly hurt Khan to the canvas for the final time. In fairness to Khan, probably most of the lightweights would have been taken out as well if they allowed Prescott to open up on them with left hooks at point blank range in the first round. However, most of them would have probably been smart enough to know that it wouldn’t be a wise move to try and tangle with Prescott that early in the fight. Khan, however, looked as if he figured his speed would be the difference.

As for hiring Roach, I don’t know that I agree with that decision. I’m sure he’s a good trainer, but I don’t see how things can be much different with him. Roach has trained a lot of good fighters, people like Wladimir Klitschko and James Toney, but he doesn’t have supernatural abilities, and won’t likely be able to do a thing for Khan’s chin problem. That’s something that no trainer can change, which makes it seem rather odd that Khan would move away from Rubio.

I thought he had a fine trainer in him, and probably could have learned a lot from him if given enough time to absorb his teachings. I suppose the same can hold true for Roach as well, but Khan has got to stick with someone. If something goes wrong, as it does in any sport, you don’t just move away from your trainer. Instead, he should be breaking down his mistakes with trainer and learning from it. It seems silly to throw away a perfectly good trainer in search for the unattainable one that will bring him everlasting invincibility.

If that’s Khan’s goal, he might as well give up and go back to his original trainer, since none of them are going to be able to enter the ring and take the shots for him. If Khan can’t take a hard punch without going down, then that’s the way it is, he’s just not cut out for the sport. The same would hold true if he had hopes of being a world class soccer star and couldn’t kick the ball between the posts. If Khan can’t take punches to the head, it’s best that he find that out sooner rather than later so that he can move on in life and find something he can do well. Constantly changing trainers, however, is like Khan sticking his head in a foxhole, trying to ignore what may be the truth about himself in hopes that it might go away.