By Liam Brindle: It doesn’t seem long ago World Boxing Association light welterweight champion Amir Khan was slumped in the corner with his head propped against the ring post wondering where he was whilst Breidis Prescott was bouncing around the ring in absolute ecstasy. Now just 18 short months on Amir Khan has had 4 fights, boxed for 20 rounds and not lost a single round, whilst Breidis Prescott has fought 3, lost 2 and won 1.

I know what people say about Amir Khan: He has his fights carefully selected, he won’t fight fighters who can bang and he won’t fight in form fighters. But to be fair to Amir he can only beat who is stood in the opposite corner.

We all know that a lot of the recent success of Amir has been down to the fact that he is now trained by Freddie Roach, who lets face it is a boxing genius. From first getting Khan Freddie said ‘He is too big up top…we need to take some of that muscle off his back and build up his legs to increase his foot speed’ and also taking up a weight which at the time seemed crazy but again was a stroke of genius.

Can you really blame team Khan for not wanting their man to get in the ring with a big puncher after being knocked out in under a minute when surely another big KO against your name within a year would spell the end?
Can you blame them for not wanting him to climb into the ring with the likes of: Zab Judah, Maidana, Ortiz, Bradley right away?

In my humble opinion team Khan are developing their man at a perfect rate getting fights that are potentially tough but are very winnable and also ones that can enhance his reputation (Barrera).

In his last fight Amir was up against an unbeaten man who at 27 was either in or very near his prime… a day before the fight I came on this site and their was an article about how Khan would get boxed to pieces and his face would be a mess, there where people commenting on the article agreeing, what happened? Amir was too fast and far to strong for an unbeaten man who attempted to cower in the corner because he knew he had nowhere to go.

The very next day I came on the site and people where saying ‘Salita is poor… Amir takes easy fights’ it just seems to me he cannot win unless he beats Mayweather and Pacquiao at the same time.

Amir Khan turned 23 a couple of days after the Salita fight which means he was 22 and was defending a world championship which is incredible and should be applauded.

I know Khan has been very vocal about the racism against him in the UK, I live in a town in the North West of England which is very close to where Amir Khan lives…so you would guess he has a lot of support right? Wrong! I have been in pubs watching him fight where people have been jumping around hugging each other when they see this very young talented fighter get put on the canvas, pointing at the screen coming out with all kinds of racist slurs, which I find absolutely disgraceful.

I now don’t watch the Khan fights in the pub as I get abuse when I cheer him I would rather stay at home with friends and pay £15.

Amir has staggering hand speed, in sparring they say he can throw 5 shots per second, he has power, his foot work is improving and his all round ring skills are improving with every fight.
I think we should all get behind this good (in my opinion will be great) Champion and enjoy what he has to offer.