Roach Sees Khan as Number Ten In the Pound for Pound List

By Boxing News - 07/28/2009 - Comments

khan342By Scott Gilfoid:Trainer Freddie Roach seems to be losing his ability to judge boxing talent. Not only does he see WBA light welterweight champion as one of the future stars in boxing on par with Floyd Mayweather Jr., but Roach is already ranking the 22-year-old Khan at number #10 in the pound-for-pound list. This has got to be the worst selection of a pound for pound fighter I’ve ever seen. Khan seems like a nice guy, but he doesn’t belong anywhere close to any pound for pound list based on a handful of wins over B-level fighters.

I wonder if Roach was serious when he added Khan’s name to the pound for pound list or if he was just putting us on. I know he’s trying to pump up his fighter and all and give him so confidence, but come on. Khan is being steered around big punchers like Breidis Prescott, so how can he be on a pound for pound list? Those lists should only contain fighters that can kick the stuffing out of the fighters in their division, not ones that are being shielded from big punchers like Khan appears to be.

All this based on a win over a paper champion Andriy Kotelnik with zero power. Roach needs to step back and clear his head for a minute, because there’s nothing in Khan’s recent wins that suggest that he’s anything that what he’s been in the past. In other words, a glass jawed fighter who can beat the weak-punchers but who has major problems with he’s pitted with a slugger. Breidis Prescott destroyed Khan last year in one devastating round. Has Khan given Prescott a rematch?

The answer is a big no, and it will stay that way for a long time to come. Heck, I don’t ever expect Khan to be put in with Prescott again in this lifetime. No, Roach’s idea of big wins is ones over Marco Antonio Barrera by way of 5th round technical decision based on a head butt.

Never mind that the 35-year-old Barrera was three to five years past his prime and was fighting two divisions above his former prime fighting weight. The point was Khan won the fight, so we should bow down and crown him as the next big thing. Who cares if Khan didn’t answer any of the questions about his brittle chin by facing the undersized, over the hill Barrera?

The point is Khan won. The win proved zero other than that Khan can beat a handpicked opponent. The same goes for Khan’s victory over Kotelnik, who Khan already said himself is the worst of the light welterweight champions. Great pick, Amir! Instead of going after WBO light welterweight champion Timothy Bradley, Khan opts to fight the easy mark without power or the skills and speed of Bradley.

I don’t care how young Khan is, I don’t see him ever maturing to the point where he can beat a fighter like Bradley, Kendall Holt, Victor Ortiz and especially Prescott and Marcos Maidana. That’s why I think Roach’s recent success with his fight predictions are going to his head. Come on, anyone could pick Manny Pacquiao over a weight drained, shot Oscar De La Hoya and a partied out Ricky Hatton.

That didn’t take any great prediction skills. That’s just common sense. You can just look at the fact that De La Hoya had lost three out of his last six fights with one of victories being a gift decision over Felix Sturm and the other two wins coming against Steve Forbes and Ricardo Mayora, and see that he was going to have problems. Hatton was a shell of himself after being beaten by Mayweather in 2007.

Hatton never did prove himself capable of beating a top level fighter in his career with his best wins – Luis Collazo and Kostya Tszyu – being controversial because of the wrestling, fouling and holding that Hatton did in the fight. I think Roach is going to be in for a big shock when they finally put Khan in with a slugger like Maidana.

However, despite rumors about Khan possibly fighting Maidana in the near future, I don’t believe it for a second. I’ll grow old waiting for that fight to happen and I can’t see it ever materializing. I see Khan vacating rather than fighting Maidana and getting stretched again. If Khan ever does fight him, he’ll have his track shoes on and will be sprinting from the word go in an effort to protect his glass jaw from Maidana’s huge shots.

Let me do my own Nostradamus impression. I see Khan running around the ring nonstop, grabbing Maidana in a tight clinch whenever he gets near him. The entire fight will be one big stall for time. Khan would be the worst example of a spoiler there ever was if that fight happens.

I still see him getting destroyed because even with all those tactics, Khan will still end up getting nailed two or three times per round by Maidana and it probably won’t take more than a couple of hard shots to Khan’s china chin to knock him out again.



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