By William Mackay: Like when he first started training with Freddie Roach, Amir Khan is ecstatic about being with his new trainer Virgil Hunter. Khan believes that Hunter is going to turn his career around and completely and bring him back to where he was when he was a world champion in the light welterweight division.

Hunter has built the large part of his new found popularity as a trainer due to the great job he’s done his top fighter WBA/WBC super middleweight champion Andre Ward, who clearly is the best fighter in the 168 pound division right now. However, just because Hunter was able to do that with the totally focused and serous minded Ward doesn’t necessarily mean he’s going to be able to do the same for Khan. There’s a world of difference between what Hunter had to work with initially with Ward compared to what he has in front of him with Khan.

Hunter will likely be trying calm Khan down, to make him think more in the ring, and to stop running around throwing wild shots. Khan wastes so much energy when he fights with his movement which often times seems senseless. And the wild punches Khan throws are also something that Hunter will have to get some control over if he’s to turn Khan’s career around. It looks at times like Khan is just throwing fast shots to impress the judges and the fans instead of fighting smart. The fast combinations leaves Khan open for getting hit with counter shots that he doesn’t see coming because he’s preoccupied with throwing his crowd and judge-pleasing flurries.

I don’t know that Khan is going to be able to slow down and fight under the controlled pace that Hunter may way him to. Hunter will probably turn Khan into a really conservative fighter where Khan basically jabs 90% of the time and throws single power shots in the other part. Hunter will likely realize that it’s too dangerous for Khan to throw combinations period because he doesn’t have the chin to take incoming fire after he throws his combos. We’ll probably see Khan become a really boring fighter from now.

One bad thing that is working against Khan is that he’s being matched up against a weak opponent in his next fight in facing 5’6″ Carlos Molina. This in turn will cause Khan to be brave and to slip away from whatever game plan that Hunter has for him in order to throw fast combos like he usually does to try and obliterate a weak opponent.

It would be better if Khan were facing a tough guy like Breidis Prescott, who would force Khan to fight in the style that Hunter wants him to in order to win. Khan wouldn’t have any margin of error against Prescott because if he doesn’t listen to Hunter and just tries to slug with Prescott, Khan will end up getting knocked out in the 1st or 2nd round. That’s why it’s better that Khan have a dangerous opponent to be facing instead of a guy that has zero power and no chance at winning the fight like Carlos Molina.