Khan vs. Salita in December? – News

By Boxing News - 09/07/2009 - Comments

By William Mackay: It’s looking more and more that WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (21-1, 15 KO’s) will be facing Ukrainian born Dimitry Salita (30-0-1, 16 KO’s) in December in a fight that will probably take place in London, England. For boxing fans, this is probably not good news because fans had been hoping that they’d see Khan matched against a higher quality opponent than this, someone like Ricky Hatton, Timothy Bradley, Kendall Holt, or at the very least, Marcos Maidana.

However, none of them appear to be in the cards for Khan, as the talk is that Khan will defend his WBA light welterweight title against his number #1 mandatory challenger, in this case the unheralded 27-year-old Salita. I’ve personally seen several of Salita’s fights in their entirety, as well as a number of his other bouts on You tube, and I can’t say that I was impressed in the least of what I saw in Salita.

After watching Salita get pounded B level fighters like Ramon Montano, Francisco Campos and Derrick Campos, I was left scratching my head wondering how Salita could be ranked number #1 in the WBA. He has no defense to speak of and seems to be magnet for punches. He mostly blocks them with his face from what I can see. His power is average, and his hand speed is poor.

Salita does look good in throwing double and triple hooks against the B level opponents that I’ve seen him in against, but with his slow hand speed and upright fighting stance, I can’t see Salita landing many of his shots against Khan. Given that Salita is Khan’s mandatory challenger, Amir has no choice but to fight him sooner or later, but I was hoping it was going to be later – much later – that Khan would be forced to fight this guy.

Salita has a little power going for him, but he’s mostly a average to below average puncher from what I can see. I’d rate Andriy Kotelnik as a better puncher than Salita, and I don’t consider Kotelnik to be a good puncher at all. But with Khan’s weak chin, it might not take much of a puncher to get him out of there.

Who knows? Salita might pull off another 1st round knockout win like Breidis Prescott if he can blitz Khan in the opening round. I seriously doubt it will happen because of Salita’s slow hand speed and mediocre power, but with a glass chin like Khan, its’ not beyond the realm of possibilities.

Salita is a pressure fighter, so Khan will have to stay on the move the entire fight unless he wants to stand his ground and try to beat Salita in that manner. I can see Khan taking Salita out if he elects to go toe-to-toe, because Salita has been hurt in a number of his fights against lesser punchers than Khan.

However, for that to happen, Khan will have to stop fighting on his back foot and will have to focus more on his offensive output. Khan fought mostly defensively against Kotelnik in July and took very few chances in that fight.



Comments are closed.