By Peter Wells: No one ever said filling ones potential would be easy, and when one hits a roadblock or two it takes a person of un-teachable determination and will power to fulfil that promise which has been shifted upon ones shoulders. So when Amir Khan suffered defeat number three it would take someone with that incredible will power to bounce back and reach the heights that he was expected to reach.
Yet another change in trainer and Khan is set to go again. So here we go. Take four! Now with Virgil Hunter in Khan’s corner, the Bolton born Olympic Silver medallist will take to the ring for the second time since Danny Garcia took Khan out in 4 explosive rounds. First up was the undersized and over matched Carlos Molina (not the Carlos Molina competing at 154lbs), whom was outclassed for 10 rounds before his corner decided enough was enough.
Next up… the experienced Julio Diaz who’s career highlight has been holding the IBF Lightweight title twice. Diaz despite coming off an unlikely draw against Shawn Porter has been stopped in 5 of his 7 defeats, the most recent in 2011 when Kendall Holt scored a third round knockout. A veteran of 48 fights, Diaz will come in the naturally smaller fighter, and despite 29 knockout wins, will lack the power at Welterweight to seriously trouble Khan on Saturday night.
Khan will be returning to the UK for the first time since defeating Paul McCloskey, two years ago. Khan dominated that fight and looks favourite to dominate again here. Diaz will believe the same as every Khan opponent, that he will be able to take advantage of Khan’s needlessly aggressive style and suspect chin. But like 27 of those previous opponents he will likely falter to Khan’s own power. Expect Amir to box to the game plan early before starting to dominate and hurt Diaz in the second half of the fight. Diaz may hit the canvas on the way to a unanimous decision loss.
This is only the beginning of Khan’s rebuilding job, but afterwards we will know more about whether Khan is any closer to completing his quest or if we have all been expecting just too much.
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