By Dan Ambrose: If all it took for a fighter with a glass jaw was to spar with a big puncher to cure his problems with taking punches, I guess the boxing world would be filled with champion-caliber fighters instead of the mostly mediocre talent that permeates all of boxing now.
It looks as if lightweight Amir Khan (18-1, 14 KOs) is under the mistaken impression that he can cure his chin problems by sparring with Manny Pacquiao, saying in an interview with Mirror Sport, “I got caught with some big shots and I caught him with a few. That’s boxing and it gives you confidence if someone like Manny can hit you with a big shot and you can take it and come back at him.”
That’s all well and good, but the problem is that he was wearing headgear and over-sized gloves the whole time he was sparring, thus cushioning the blows that he was getting hit with by Pacquiao. Take away the gloves and headgear from Khan, and I’d be willing to bet that Khan would get stretched in a round or two from the big shots thrown by Pacquiao.
Getting hit in the head is the last thing that Khan needs at this point, and not something that is going to miraculously cure his chin problem any time soon. Khan, 22, was recently taken out in one round by Colombian Breidis Prescott in August.
If that were the only time that Khan had been dropped it wouldn’t be such an issue, but unfortunately he’s been dropped by Michael Gomez and Willie Limond, neither of which are considered huge punchers by any stretch of the imagination.
So instead of working on taking punches from big hitters like Pacquiao, Khan really needs to figure out how to protect his fragile, egg-shell chin and learn to cover up for a change instead of trying to let his hands go all the time.
I saw a few glimpses of his sparring with Pacquiao, and Khan looked as wide open defensively in his sparring with Pacquiao as he did in his fight with Prescott. Like usual, Khan came right at Pacquiao trying to throw hooks and was getting nailed something fierce by every right hand and left hook that Pacquiao threw.
Only on a few instances did I see Khan blocking any punches and that was only because Pacquiao’s aim was off and he threw his punches right at Khan’s outstretched gloves. No, I’m afraid that Khan is wasting his time sparring with Pacquiao, if he believes that’s somehow going to build up his chin.
What Khan needs to do is sign on with someone like Floyd Mayweather Sr. as fast as he can, before Mayweather gets out of the sport altogether. Khan needs to learn how to protect himself like Floyd Mayweather Jr., only then he might have a slight chance at being a top fighter in the lightweight division.
As it is, he’s going to be in trouble once he goes up against another top lightweight with power. Khan is scheduled to fight Osin Fagan, a light hitting Irish boxer, on December 6th at the ExCel Arena, Dockland, in London.
Fagan, 34, is the perfect type of fighter for Khan due his nonexistent power and the type of fighter that Khan needs to be concentrating on for the next two years until he learns how to protect himself sufficiently enough to fight bigger punchers.
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