By Dan Ambrose: IBF/IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez thinks it’s quite possible that the lighter, weaker Amir Khan (31-3, 19 KOs) could pull off an upset in his fight against WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (46-1-1, 32 KOs) on May 7.
Sanchez thinks that the heavier Canelo will likely be sluggish and slow from having put on a ton of weight after rehydrating from having made the 155lb catch-weight the day before their fight. Sanchez believes that as long as Khan doesn’t try and fight Canelo toe-to-toe, he’s got the hand speed and talent to potentially beat the Mexican fighter.
Sanchez thinks Khan is too talented for Canelo to be able to just run over like many boxing fans think. The only thing that Sanchez doesn’t know is if Khan will listen to his trainer Virgil Hunter, and stick to the game plan for the fight.
If Khan does stay completely focused in following Hunter’s game plan, then he believes that he could shock the boxing world on May 7 by beating Canelo.
“Maybe the weight made a difference for Roberto Duran, and maybe the weight will make a difference for Amir Khan,” Sanchez said to Fighthub.com. “He’s still going to be fast with his hands. He’s still going to be fast with his feet. Canelo will be even more sluggish and slowed because he’s going to gain so much weight. So that could make a difference for Khan. I’m sure Virgil [Hunter] will have a great game plan for Amir, and if Amir pays attention, he may shock the world,” said Sanchez.
"My goal is to fight against the bigger names and the greatest fighters".
Amir Khan pic.twitter.com/Uw7fFRWhaZ
— World Boxing Council (@WBCBoxing) February 16, 2016
In the past, Khan has had a bad tendency to slug with his opponents. This has led to him losing to Breidis Prescott, Lamont Peterson and Danny Garcia. Even in Khan’s last fight against Chris Algieri, he chose to slug with him, and it almost cost him the fight. However, for the Canelo fight, Khan says he’s absolutely not going to try and slug with him because he recognizes that Canelo is too big and strong for him to fight that kind of fight.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjHYkujt2R0
Khan says he’s going to be very motivated to stick to the game plan by boxing Canelo for 12 rounds rather than trying to mix it up with him. It’s a positive that Khan is at least aware that he cannot punch it out with Canelo. In the past, Khan has had the opinion that he can punch with anyone that he faces. But, he can’t do that against a big middleweight like Canelo, and he knows that.
Sanchez thinks that Khan’s punch resistance might be better for this fight than it’s been in the past, because Khan is moving up in weight to 155lbs for the Canelo fight. This is an extra eight pounds for Khan, who walks around at 165lbs. It means that instead of Khan having to take off around 20 pounds to make weight for his fights at 147, he’ll only need to take off 10 pounds. That’s not a lot of weight and it could result in Khan being stronger.
“Those five to seven pounds may make a difference [for Khan]. Maybe he’s killing himself to make the weight, and sometimes that makes a difference in your ability to absorb the shots,” said Sanchez. “But the other thing is if he pays attention to Virgil and doesn’t get brave, the worst thing that can happen to him is he gets brave and thinks he can go toe-to-toe with Canelo. That’s not going to happen. If He listens and pays attention and stays focused, I think he has a great chance. I didn’t say I’m betting. It’s not as far-fetched as it seems to think that he’s [Canelo] going to roll right over him. He’s [Khan] too much of a talent for it to happen. Whoever has that belt, that’s who Gennady wants. He wants to be the unified champion. So if it’s Khan, it’s Khan,” said Sanchez.
It would be a big blow to Canelo’s career if Khan beats him. Canelo would then need to arrange a rematch with Khan at some point, and he have to temporarily forget about fighting Golovkin. That’s a fight that would be a tough sale if Canelo gets beaten by Khan once or twice.
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