By Stuart Gant: I am and have been for a long time a huge boxing fan, enjoying not only the big boxing matches but also the lower level bouts, however even I can’t avoid the issue of certain boxers getting title shots or big bouts when many would say they didn’t deserve it.
There are many examples of this but one I would definitely use would be the British newly crowned WBA light-welterweight champion, Amir Khan. Now I watched the Khan-Kotelnik fight and like many was impressed by Khans display as he stuck to his game plan and out boxed Kotelnik. Although Khan obviously deserved to win, the question many people wondered was did he deserve a world title shot in the beginning.
Ten months ago, after his defeat to Breidis Prescott, knocked out in under a minute, few gave Amir Khan any hope of winning a world title and why should they. Admittedly there have been some greats in the past get KO’d in a bad fashion and still come back to become a champion such as the late Arturo Gatti but Khan didn’t in my opinion have a good enough CV of opponents to deserve a title shot. Before Roach came on the scene Khans only real respectable opponent was Gary St Claire who he beat in a unanimous 12 round decision. The next respectable opponent Khan fought against was the Colombian Breidis Prescott and was KO’d by Prescott who has just recently lost to the unproven Miguel Vazquez. Before this Khan had also been put down and hurt by Willie Limmond and Michael Gomez. Then came Roach and soon Khan had a fight with the legendary Marco Antonio Barrera and won with a big help from an accidental head butt. Does this really mean Khan deserved the title shot? Many would say obviously he did as he won the bout comfortably but the issue is whether there were more qualified boxers out there that deserved that title shot but didn’t have the coach or promoter to get it.
Next is the exciting and to his credit highly successful David Haye. Unfortunately though I am unsure as to whether it is Hayes skills and records that are getting him these potential fights in this division or his rather loud mouth. Unless your bias against Haye you can’t really knock his record in the cruiserweight division or his KO percentage but the heavyweight division is a completely different ball game. With no weight limits you can have 6ft 7 monsters in the Klitschko brothers and the 7ft 2 22 stone beast that is Nikolai Valuev. No where in the cruiserweight no matter how good you are can you prepare for how big and how hard these guys punch. The great Evander Holyfield, who Haye wants to emulate, had to win 5 heavyweight fights before getting a shot at James Douglas for the Heavyweight titles. Unfortunately for some boxers I think Haye’s antics such as his T-shirts and some of his comments have got him a title shot in front of other boxers who really deserve it. Lets face it Haye has faced Tomasz Bonin (who also lost to Audley Harrison) and Monte Barrett who in my opinion don’t make you ready for a World Title fight.
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