By Scott Gilfoid: Amir Khan’s former trainer Freddie Roach thinks that Khan has the skills to pull off a big upset in his proposed fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. in Las Vegas, Nevada. There’s still no official word yet whether Mayweather will even face the 27-year-old Khan, but Roach is willing to give his 2 cents about what’ll happen if the fight does go down. I get the feeling that Roach is hoping that Khan will hire him back as his trainer.
I think Roach needs to put things in perspective in judging what Khan will or won’t do against Mayweather. If Roach would sit down and take a look at Khan’s last four fights, he’d realize that Khan is pretty much on his way out of the sport in terms of being a major player at 140 or 147. Khan can fight for another 10 years, but I think his best days are in the rear view mirror at this point. The fights against Marcos Maidana, Danny Garcia and Lamont Peterson seems to have taken something out of Khan, leaving him a fragile-chinned fighter who can’t even beat fringe contenders like Julio Diaz without controversy.
“That’s not an easy fight. I’ve always said Amir has the right style to beat Floyd if he fights correctly and doesn’t stay in the pocket too long,” Roach said to Ringside Toe 2 Toe Podcast. “I always thought he could beat him with his speed. I think he’s faster than Mayweather and that’s what it takes to beat him. Floyd might have his hands full on the night.”
Even before Khan’s beat downs against Maidana, Garcia and Peterson, he’d be no match against Mayweather. Khan’s always been too predictable in his attacks, and Mayweather would be able to predict his every move after just 2 minutes of action. Heck, Mayweather wouldn’t even have to watch tape on Khan in order to be able to figure out when and where to nail him with a big shot. Khan makes it so easy with the way he charges forward like a Billy Goat throwing combinations. Roach did zero to change Khan’s fighting style despite working with him for years. The only thing that Roach was able to do was to get Khan to use his jab a little bit more. Other than that, Roach did nothing to improve Khan.
If the Khan-Mayweather fight goes down on May 3rd, there’s going to be a lot of angry fans afterwards feeling ripped off for having paid big money to see this sick mismatch. I’ll be here telling them ‘I told you so.’
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