By Jim Dower: 2004 Olympic silver medalist Amir Khan (21-1, 15 KO’s) easily defeated World Boxing Association light welterweight champion Andriy Kotelnik (31-3-1, 13 KO’s) by a 12-round unanimous decision tonight to grab Kotelnik’s title at the M.E.N. Arena, in Manchester. The final judges’ scores were 120-108, 118-111 and 118-111. Kotelnik, 31, never really was competitive in the fight. Khan, 22, had far too much speed and was able to get the better of him in most of the exchanges in the fight. Khan stayed on the move and easily picked off the slower Kotelnik, who seemed at a loss what to do against the constantly moving Khan.
The bout was hopelessly one-sided until the 11th and 12th rounds, when Khan tired out somewhat and focused more on running out the clock. However, because of Kotelnik’s lack of punching power, there was little he could do in the last two rounds to hurt Khan and the fight ended up with both fighters on their feet.
Khan skillfully stayed on the move in the first three rounds, hitting Kotelnik with a steady rain of punches to the head. The differences between Khan’s blazing hand speed and that of the slower Kotelnik was startling, and it became apparent early that Kotelnik wasn’t going to be able to get the better of Khan when exchanging shots with him.
If Kotelnik was to have any chance of winning, he was going to have to hope to catch Khan with a big shot or else pressure him a lot and hope to wear him down in the second half of the fight. Kotelnik had little luck landing any power shots in the first two rounds.
By the time that he would close the distance and try to land, Khan would hit him with a quick combination and then move out of distance. Early in the 3rd round, a frustrated looking Kotelnik charged after Khan and hit him with a good four punch combination to the head.
It seemed then that Kotelnik might have come up with a new strategy on how to make contact with Khan. However, it wasn’t to be, as Khan continued to move laterally and started pumping in more jabs and powerful left-right combinations that often stopped Kotelnik in his tracks, preventing him from moving forward.
In the later part of the 3rd round, Kotelnik was able to land a series of combinations, finishing the round strong. In the 4th round, Kotelnik pressured Khan continuously in the round and hit him with some hard shots. It looked as if Kotelnik was starting to figure out how to beat Khan.
In the 5th, Khan began to use more lateral movement and was able to frustrate Kotelnik, keeping him from landing his harder shots. In the meantime, Khan laid down a steady flow of jabs and lightning fast two punch combinations to the head of Kotelnik.
Near the end of the round, both fighters stood toe-to-toe trading big shots back and forth with Khan getting the better of the action. In rounds six through eight, Kotelnik was able to land a handful of big power shots. However, to his credit, Khan took the shots without any problem and answered back with fast combinations.
The shots that Khan took were some very respectable punches and if he really did have a glass chin like some people have been saying about him, he surely would have gone down from one of them. Khan’s speed and work rate was far too much for Kotelnik in these rounds, and the fight was turning quickly into a full route. Kotelnik didn’t have an answer for Khan’s speed and the movement made it even worse for Kotelnik.
In rounds nine through twelve, Khan began to tire out some and was getting hit a lot more than he had been earlier in the fight. Kotelnik landed some big shots in each of these rounds. However, he was never able to land more than two shots at a time because Khan would move away from him and drill him in the face with jabs and fast 1-2 combinations.
Kotelnik’s right cheek was swollen by the end of the 9th, and his face was reddened from the many shots that Khan had landed in the fight. Khan focused on throwing jabs in the last three rounds and avoiding big exchanges with Kotelnik. In the 11th and 12th, Kotelnik landed the better shots as Khan, knowing he was well ahead in the fight, was using the last two rounds to box and move.
In the end, Khan fought the perfect fight against Kotelnik. Freddie Roach, Khan’s trainer, came up with an ideal plan on how to beat the Ukrainian fighter. However, I think Khan could have beaten Kotelnik even without Roach’s help, because the talent difference was far too huge between the two fighters.
After the fight, an exuberant Khan had this to say: “I proved everyone wrong (those who said that Khan would never be a champion). I felt so strong. He caught me with some good shots. I’m sure he [Kotelnik] can come back and become champion again. I had to box him. I had to pick my shots. I couldn’t afford to make a mistake, because in the later rounds I did tired. My work rate was huge. He didn’t hurt me. I felt his pressure. Freddie [Roach] told me to stay composed. Don’t start hooking with him because that’s when you get caught. I just stayed composed and kept boxing him and touching him. I never doubted myself. I knew it was going to be a tough to come back and prove the critics wrong. “
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