By Dan Ambrose: Freddie Roach thinks his fighter WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (23-1, 17 KO’s) is free of the mental baggage from his 1st round knockout loss to Breidis Prescott two years ago in 2008. Roach doesn’t see that loss as an indication that Khan has a weak chin, and feels that Khan has learned from the mistakes that led to him being knocked out by Prescott. Having seen that fight many times, it didn’t look like Khan made too many mistakes in that fight.

He went out there and was staggered by jab from Prescott. That punch pretty much froze the feet of Khan and the only mistake I can see that Khan made after that was trying to throw a hook at the same time that Prescott was. That was a mistake because Prescott’s shot got there before Khan and he was immediately hurt.

Speaking to the Telegraph.co.uk Roach said “He [Khan] doesn’t make the mistakes he used to make. He’s free – mentally – of the defeat to Breidis Prescott. There’s no question about that. That is why I put him in to spar with Manny Pacquiao as soon as he came to the Wild Card. No mental scars.”

Sparring with head gear and 16 ounce gloves is one thing, but fighting without it and with 8 ounce gloves like Khan will be on Saturday night against a big puncher like Maidana is quite another thing. Roach needs to take a wait and see approach with Khan before diagnosing him as being mentally free of his knockouts. It isn’t like Khan has been matched tough since the Prescott defeat. Let’s be real here. Khan has been put in with nothing but weak punchers since that fight and it doesn’t prove anything that he beat them.

If Khan can beat Maidana while taking his best shots in the fight, then Roach may have a reason to get a little excited. But he really needs to hold off on crowning Khan until he at least fights Maidana and proves that he’s mentally back or not. Khan had problems taking shots before the Maidana fight, and was already getting knocked down. It could be that Khan simply can’t take hard shots without getting knocked out.