By Chris Williams: If there’s a one thing that really stands out in Amir Khan’s fights against Marcos Maidana and Lamont Peterson it’s the amount of running that Khan did when experiencing pressure from these fighters. Khan literally couldn’t stand his ground and was backpedaling or circling the ring throughout both fights.

The differences between the two fights were that Peterson had the foot speed to catch up to Khan by jogging after him, whereas Maidana continued to walk slowly and having lots of problems catching the fleeing Khan. But Khan was exhausted by the 10th round in both fights from the running, and that’s something he’s going to need to work on in his future fights if he wants to continue to find success.

Khan does well when he’s head in a fight and he’s the one taking the fight to an overmatched stationary fighter that moves little. When he’s not feeling any pressure, Khan is confident and not using up energy. But when he’s pressured, you can see Khan lose his confidence and start to look worried as he runs around the ring in wide circles or backpedals after landing.

He doesn’t react well when his opponents are actually trying to come after him to win instead of just rolling over. Khan’s stamina quickly fades and he loses his power by the 9th and 10th rounds. And all the showboating Khan does where he puts his arms out after he’s hit hard or shakes his head when he’s getting blasted is really just a waste of energy and time. He’s not fooling anyone, least of all his opponents.

His trainer Freddie Roach should have stressed the importance of not wasting effort on useless movements like that. Khan needs to minimize all the extra movement that’s not helping him win fights or impress judges. If anything, Khan’s showboating alienates him with the judges because they see a cocky fighter that needs to be put in his place. Khan needs to be mature in the ring and not fighting like a child.

The constant movement causes Khan to get tired and start to look sloppy where he’s lost his form completely and he’s just shoving and pulling down on his opponent’s heads. If Khan wants to be an elite fighter, he needs to limit the running, conserve energy, come up with a better way of fighting on the inside rather than pushing off and bending his opponents’ heads down.

Khan needs to learn how to take body shots as well, because he clearly didn’t like it when he was getting hit to the body. It was like a new experience for him that he wasn’t prepared for and was going to do anything he could not to continue to get hit there by fouling. Roach needs to calm Khan down, slow him down and teach some actual skills. It looks as if Roach hasn’t taught Khan one thing in the two years that he’s been his trainer. I think Khan needs to dump Roach and go with someone that can actually teach him something.