by Daniel R: With a record of (24-1, 17 Kos), WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan has without a doubt raised his game over the recent years. Since his devastating knockout loss to Breidis Prescott in 2008, Khan has gone on to beat Marco Barrera, Andriy Kotelnik, Dimitri Salita and Paulie Malignaggi in a very impressive manner.

You can’t help but think this is all due to his trainer Freddie Roach, who has made Khan a much more disciplined fighter and because of this Khan has really matured as a fighter. His fight with Kotelnik showed the first signs of a major change and maturity in his game, even though Kotelnik wasn’t a big puncher. Khan was making sure his defense was on point at all times. As soon as Khan threw a punch his hands were immediately back up, something which he didn’t used to do and often got reckless. His most recent fight with Marcos Maidana further showed a huge improvement to Khan’s game since the Prescott loss. He looked freakishly quick, got in and got out and frustrated Maidana with quick combinations and quick movement around the ring making Maidana fatigue.

However, Maidana did eventually get to Khan and in the 10th round we saw Maidana catch Khan with powerful hard punches and more or less completely battered Khan around the ring for the round. But the thing that surprised everyone was the ability for Khan to take these punches without even touching the canvas once. The fact that fighters like Michael Gomez and Willie Limond, who actually should have won the fight as Khan should have been counted out, had knocked down and really hurt Khan.
It’s unbelievable to think Khan could have withstood the punishment from Maidana and recover so well to go on to win the fight. And this shows the extent to which Khan’s conditioning and composure has improved under Roach.

As for Khan’s future, I think he definitely beats challenger Paul McCloskey on April 16th and should then go on to face WBC/WBO light welterweight champion Timothy Bradley in the summer, which would be extremely tough for Khan but is also a very winnable fight. After hoping to unify the titles, Khan has stated that he wants to move up to welterweight and challenge the likes of Floyd Mayweather which I don’t think will ever happen, and we could see potential match ups with WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto and even Victor Ortiz. But I don’t see Khan able to beat the bigger fighters like Berto, as I think Khan will be smothered and bullied by the bigger stronger fighters. Nevertheless, Khan has a bright future at light welterweight if he continues to improve as he has over the recent years. I see the Bradley fight very winnable, and if he does unify the titles, he will finally receive the recognition and credit he deserves. I do think Khan will struggle at welterweight and believe he should fight the many other top light welterweights such as Devon Alexander, a rematch with Maidana, Lucas Matthysse and even Zab Judah.