Khan an ordinary boxer with extraordinary hand speed and hype

By Boxing News - 07/15/2012 - Comments

Image: Khan an ordinary boxer with extraordinary hand speed and hypeBy Muizz Ali: First of all I will proceed to tell many of you that I am not an Ami Khan hater, as I have wrote a previous article on Khan. In fact, I keep Khan in my top two favourite boxer list (after Floyd Mayweather). Khan has dazzling hand speed and a heart of a lion. We witnessed this in many of his fights such as Willie Limond, Michael Gomez, Marcos Maidana, Lamont Peterson, Danny Garcia and also Breidis Prescott after taking tremendous punches and still trying to carry on.

However, is this enough? I believe that Khan has been built by the fans particularly the British Asian fans, as a British Asian myself I see how many people just watch Khan because of his race and background. If many say no this is false then answer this question; How was Khan such a superstar at such an age without facing fighters such as Yuri Ramanau , Jon Thaxton and Melereo to make him the best in Europe? A silver medal in the Olympic does not appear answer this question. Many British Asian people I speak to don’t know Floyd Mayweather Jr. but somehow know Khan. This shows how he had achieved stardom in Britain after little experience and not many fights to show his skill.

Fighting opposition which is tailor made for your style is a way to impress the fans but when fighting a fighter who comes to win you receive the shock. Khan received this shock whilst fighting Prescott, who came to win and wasn’t Khan’s typical “take punishment opponent”. Khan has impressed many times against Andriy Kotelnik, Maidana, Marco Antonio Barrera, Zab Judah, Paulie Malignaggi, but out of these opponents how many can punch and produce speed at the same time? Each opponent faced will have speed or just power; this is what has kept Khan safe until he met the likes of Prescott, Maidana, Peterson and Garcia. Khan’s team has kept him sheltered for too long and didn’t throw Khan in the deep end at an early age.

Many fighters not just limited to Mayweather, Yuriorkis Gamboa, and Erislandy Lara have all faced fighters who have good records and want to fight back in such early stages of their career. This is why they become ring savvy and know what to expect within the ring and in a certain way know how to adapt. Fighters such as Judah and Khan have always been similar in the sense of enjoying the fight when it is going in their favour if not they do not have the boxing brain to change and adapt to a style to beat the opponent.

Khan has amazing hand speed and each fight we hear about this power and how he is hitting harder as well as feeling stronger but fight night comes and this power disappears after two rounds (excluding against faded Judah). Fighters such as Miguel Cotto (I know he is a heavier fighter now) , Garcia and Maidana would naturally give Khan nightmares as they disregard the power and look to walk through and hurt you. If you have no other tactic but to throw 1-2 punches and run away, it becomes easy to figure out.

As a Khan fan I don’t want him to get hurt and for him to believe all these stories of how he could beat Khan. The time has come for Khan to retire or move up in weight and feel stronger, and then start from scratch without mentioning big names that are on a different level.



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