Khan: You’ll see a different Amir Khan tonight

By Boxing News - 12/13/2014 - Comments

Amir Khan and Devon Alexander(Photo credit: Esther Lin/Showtime) By Scott Gilfoid: Amir Khan (29-3, 19 KOs) says he expects to be new and improved when he gets in the ring tonight against former two division world champion Devon Alexander (26-2, 14 KOs) at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada, Khan says that with the help of his trainer Virgil Hunter he’s learned from the mistakes he made in his knockout losses to Breidis Prescott and Danny Garcia.

Khan attributes those losses to him being off balance when he was hit in those fights. Khan plans on keeping his balance tonight in order to avoid getting hit with any of Alexander’s shots while he’s not prepared to receive them.

“Most of the times I’ve been hurt I’ve been off balance and I’ve had my hands down,” Khan said via Skysports.com. “Virgil is a great defensive trainer and he’s been teaching me defence. The offence was always going to be there because I’m a great offensive fighter.”

There’s no doubt that Khan’s trainer Virgil Hunter is a great defensive trainer. The only question is will Khan listen to Hunter enough and follow his instructions for the full fight without resorting to brawling with Alexander. Khan is the type of fighter where he wants to immediately pay his opponents back after they land a good punch.

The crowd starts cheering and Khan seems to lose his head and start slugging it out instead of fighting smart. If that happens tonight against Alexander then this is a fight that Khan could very well lose. He’s got to stay disciplined to beat Alexander.

“You’ll see a different Amir Khan. Every fight I’ve had under Virgil you’ve seen a big change, and with this fight we’re nearly there – the complete package,” Khan said.

We’ve already seen a different Khan starting with his last fight against Luis Collazo. Khan brawled less in that fight than he has in the past, and he did an awful lot of holding.

If Khan is going to focus most of his game on his defense tonight then he’s going to be hard to beat, because Alexander won’t be able to get his shots off with Khan holding him all night long. Alexander will need the referee to do his job by having him take points off from Khan for his constant holding, head-locks and shoving. I doubt the referee will do much to control Khan’s fouling.

It’ll be up to Alexander to make adjustments to deal with the holding. He can use movement himself to avoid Khan’s clutches, or he can continue to batter Khan while being held. Some fighters are able to generate a lot of power while being held by their opponents. Look at David Haye and Deontay Wilder.

When their opponents try to hold them, they brain them with big right hand shots that are nearly as powerful as when they have distance to get leverage on their punches. Alexander should have been working on these kinds of punches for this fight because it’s painfully obvious that Khan is going to be holding like mad tonight.



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