By Bill Gabay: For the last little while Amir Khan has been jockeying for position in the boxing world, marketing himself and trying to nail that next big fight. He even pursued a match with Floyd Mayweather Jr and Manny Pacquiao. Unfortunately for Khan, the two pound-for-pound best in the world finally agreed to fight each other on May 2nd after 5-6 years of on/off negotiations leaving Khan to continue looking elsewhere.
Adrien “The Problem” Broner, who recently won against an over-matched John Molina, has called out Khan and the latter has responded with “Let’s do it”; Fellow Brit Kell Brook continues to say that his team has been “chasing” a fight with Khan but have yet to receive a positive response; Keith “One Time” Thurman (right after beating Robert Guerrero) has also jumped on the bandwagon saying that he is open to fighting anyone including Amir Khan.
Khan is a good fighter, world-class. He has very quick hands and is skillful in using them. He does not have much power but is one who will win by through boxing and outpointing his opponent. To his credit, Khan has made a huge effort to land those big fights, often marketing himself confidently as someone who is willing to fight anyone. Khan is arguably the most proactive professional boxer on the social networking sites: he regularly posts professional and personal photos on Instagram, etc. (He is even more active than “Money” posting what he does with his money.)
Khan’s challenge is that he has lost to Danny Garcia, Lamont Peterson and Breidis Prescott. That fight with Prescott was what exposed Khan – exposed his chin and susceptibility – and derailed his world championship aspirations. From that moment on, while boxing fans still recognize his skill, the fact that he has a glass jaw was made known to the boxing world. And while he has recovered from his back-to-back losses (to Garcia and Peterson) and is currently on a 4-fight winning streak, who has he beaten? A bunch of “set-up” fighters in Carlos Molina, Julio Diaz, Luis Collazo and Devon Alexander. These are the types of boxers the elite ones will fight as they prepare to fight another elite.
Okay, maybe not Devon Alexander. That kid may not belong to that same group. He is talented after all. But nowhere near elite. (Tim Bradley was the one to expose that.)
And when everything has been said and done, that is what Amir Khan is: a very talented pro boxer who just isn’t good enough to be in the cream of the crop.
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