(Photo credit: Esther Lin/Showtime) By Adam Mccoy: Back on the 6th of September 2008, Amir Khan stood in the centre of the ring staring into the eyes of one Breidis Prescott. Khan looked confident and why shouldn’t he? 18-0 Olympic silver medalist he had the world at his feet. Khan had expressed his desire to fight for a world title after beating Prescott. What happened next shocked the world. In fact just 54 seconds later Khan was knocked out by the huge underdog Prescott.
I’m not sure what was more embarrassing the fact this was Amir’s Sky Box Office debut or the face it was his first fight under new trainer Jorge Rubio bearing in mind Rubio chose Prescott for Khan.
Days after the fight the expected decision was made, after just one fight Khan sacked Rubio and replaced him with legendary Freddie Roach. Khan started training with Roach in the States and sparring with the legend himself Manny Pacquiao. Freddie was quoted as saying Khan would be “the best in the world” within 2 years. His debut under Roach was successful. He defeated Oisin Fagan with a 3rd round TKO and the rise of Amir began once again. With a better trainer better facilities and more publicity Khan began to take America by storm winning over Oscar De La Hoya.
Amir dominated everyone in his path Marco Antonio Barrera, Andriy Kotelnik, Dmitry Salita, Paulie Malignaggi, Marcos Maidana, Paul McCloskey, and Zab Judah. The most notable was Khan’s 12 rounder with Maidana where Khan took everything Maidana had to offer and proved he has a chin and proved his critics wrong. Fast forward to the future, Khan takes 12 rounds of power shots from the hardest hitter in the division then gets knocked out by Danny Garcia?
This is what I don’t understand. Surely if Amir’s chin was as fragile as people make it out to be Maidana would of had no problem putting him down. But you all saw what happened and what does Khan do when he suffers a KO defeat? He sacks his trainer.
In his corner we now have Virgil Hunter the best defensive coach in the world coming to save the only skill that Khan lacks, Defense. Khan has everything except defense. Speed, power, and not to mention hes actually a very good boxer when he follows instructions. Everyone is now questioning how good of a trainer Roach actually is these days due to the Manny situation, Julio Cesar Chavez Jnr losing to Sergio Martinez and also Khan’s consecutive defeats.
If Roach really is crumbling how much of this was the reason behind all 3 of his fighters losses? If Khan listens carefully to Hunter if he doesn’t get into pointless brawls and actually sticks to boxing smart he will be near impossible to beat. I predict Khan to KO Molina on Saturday. This however will not prove much. Khan will then look at the likes of Vyacheslav Senchenko, Kell Brook, Malignaggi, Danny Garcia. Believe me a sensible disciplined Khan would have no problem with any of those guys as he showed in the first 2 rounds against Garcia until he got careless.
He’s got the skills, he’s got the backing of Golden Boy, and a huge British fan base not forgetting the audience he’s won over in the States. Khan can go on to have it all providing he focuses and learns from Hunter and Ward because one more slip up one more lapse of concentration and his career may well be over. This really is make or break.
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