By Alexander Fugate: After watching some of Amir Khan’s fights, it would seem that Khan could become a better fighter with a defensive minded trainer. His current trainer, Freddie Roach is an excellent trainer; however he doesn’t focus on defense. Roach works more on developing clean and fluid punching. And right now, Khan seems to have amazing hand speed and is more than capable of throwing five-plus punch combos.

No one can deny Khan has amazing speed and throws fluid combinations. His Achilles heel is a suspect chin. That wouldn’t be a problem though, if no one landed a clean punch. Floyd Mayweather Sr. is a very good trainer that puts an emphasis on defense and head movement. It just seems that if Khan could learn the defensive, elusive style typical of Mayweather Sr.’s fighters, he could be a level or two above where he is now. If Khan doesn’t get hit, it doesn’t matter if his chin is on the weak side. With his hand and foot speed, Khan could develop into a truly elite counter-puncher. Which makes one question the choice of Roach as his trainer. Roach is not known to focus on counter-punching and making it hard for an opponent to hit you. He is one of the best at teaching the proper technique of how to throw punches. But Khan seems to already be excellent at that. If Roach doesn’t teach Khan how not to get hit in the ring, then a power-puncher like Maidana or Alexander will always pose a serious risk.

On the other hand, Mayweather Sr. has worked with numerous fighters and usually to a good effect. Granted his tenure as Hatton’s cornerman for the Pacquiao fight didn’t work out, but that’s because Hatton fought like he always did. He wasn’t about to change his entire style of fighting after 45 fights where he was a straight brawler. Mayweather Sr. often tries to teach the famous shoulder roll technique.

This is a very tricky style to learn, but once a fighter masters this, it causes problems for any opponent. Mayweather also works on footwork and how to stay just out of range of one’s opponent. Basically, Mayweather Sr. is a defensive-oriented trainer and Roach is more offensive minded. And watching Khan it’s obvious he already is a great offensive fighter, but sometimes leaves himself open for big shots.

It seems like the logical thing would be to work with a defensive guru, like Mayweather Sr., because while Roach is a great trainer in his own right, throwing clean punches isn’t going to help you when you get caught with a great counter shot. When Pacquiao fought Marquez we saw that it didn’t matter that Manny had more punches in his arsenal, because he still got tagged with power counter-punches all night long.

It appears Khan wouldn’t be able to finish the fight on his feet if he took that kind of punishment. Which makes one question, why Khan isn’t more focused on becoming a better defensive fighter? Prescott already showed the world what can happen with just one, good clean punch to Khan’s chin, and it seems like Khan is depending on Roach’s ability to cherry-pick his opponents to launch his career.

Roach is excellent at deciding who he will put in the same ring as his fighters and that could carry the day for Khan. Pacquiao has been avoiding any fighter that uses lateral foot movement and counter-punching, practically his entire career. The only real exception to that are the two fights with Marquez, and many feel that Pacquiao lost both of those fights.

That Pacquiao refuses to fight any true “boxer” doesn’t seem to bother his fans at all. So if Khan can get enough big name opponents that lack real power, he could very well raise quite high in the boxing world. He already destroyed Barrera, and with Morales announcing his comeback and Marquez still in the game, Khan could very easily get hyped up really big by beating the exact same fighters that got Pacquiao so big.

I have little doubt Khan would beat both Morales and Marquez, and that would already put him a notch above Pacquiao who struggled terribly with Marquez, and lost to a war ravaged Morales in their first meeting. Manny’s fans don’t mind that his opponents best days were already behind them by the time he got in the ring with them, so it just seems like if Khan can get enough big name fights, it really won’t matter if he would lose to power punchers.

After all, Pacquiao would probably lose to any great, or even just really good counter-puncher and that hasn’t bothered him at all, he just refuses to fight those kinds of fighters. I really don’t see why Khan can’t do the same thing. Still, I think it would benefit Khan more if he worked on his defensive abilities and not getting hit, and then he wouldn’t have to worry about how hard somebody hits, and could get in the ring with anyone.