By Liam Santiago: I was delighted to see Amir Khan crowned WBA champion last month. He proved any critics wrong and won very comfortably, however, he did show flaws and weaknesses that other fighters would have capitalised on. After the win, once again we heard Khan and his trainer claim they would ‘relish’ a fight with Manchester legend Ricky Hatton. This is the first time I have to strongly disagree with Freddie Roach. Khan is no Pacquiao and Kotelnik is no Hatton.
Although Khan won pretty much every round against Kotelnik, he displayed many flaws that would not have been ignored by any of the other light welterweight champions. Kotelnik was simply too slow and basic to capitalise. Khan looked very vulnerable under pressure at certain times in the fight and believe me, Kotelnik in no pressure fighter of any sort. If you told me to pick a champion in the light welterweight division that is least effective in piling the pressure on, it would have to be Kotelnik.
So you can imagine Khan’s reaction to the Manchester Hitman’s pressure, which is clearly the most effective we have seen in years. Kotelnik was not actually even putting pressure on Khan, he was simply chasing. Hatton would cut Khan off and not allow him to move. He would aim to pin the Bolton man in the corner and work away at him with thunderous body shots. Hatton even had Pacquiao pinned in the corner at certain points.
I can’t see how Khan could handle that kind of pressure, especially as his chin is very suspect. The way Hatton fights is very like that Panamanian, Roberto Duran who is one of the greatest boxers to ever live. Khan’s new style that he has adapted to protect his chin is of pitter patter shots and jabs, in and out with very little power. The claims from certain pundits that Khan could stop Hatton is laughable. Mayweather and Pacquiao have tremendous power but Amir Khan does not. As Enzo Calzaghe has stated, ‘Khan doesn’t punch hard enough, I see Ricky stopping him in round eight or nine’.
Okay, Hatton has been defeated twice by the two all time greats, Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. In the first few rounds against Mayweather, Hatton had him off balance and Mayweather was struggling with the ‘Manchester Mexican’s’ pressure. If Floyd Mayweather struggled, how would Khan find it? I do not see any close comparison in quality of the opposition Hatton has recently fought and the opposition Khan has fought.
Khan is certainly no Pacquiao, and if he thinks he is he might be in for another huge shock. Did he not claim once before that he would stop Briedis Prescott by round six. We all know how that ended up so I won’t bother going there. Even Hatton’s long time rival Junior Witter has tipped Hatton to stop Khan easy if the fight ever happens and John Murray has claimed Hatton would knock the Bolton man out even if he had only 10% left.
If this dream bout was ever to happen, Hatton would do exactly what he did to Malignaggi. Khan would try and box Hatton from the outside and jab away but Hatton would smother him in pressure and stop him. If Khan’s management team think this is the right fight for Khan then he really needs to change his promoter. The list of the names that think Khan would come up short against the Hitman are endless, they include, Joe Gallagher, Brain Lawrence, Brendan Ingle, Enzo Calzaghe, Junior Witter, John Murray, Billy Graham, Carl Froch and Johny Nelson. Need I say anymore.
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