Khan: I’ll be at 165lbs for Canelo fight

By Boxing News - 02/03/2016 - Comments

khan56By Dan Ambrose: Amir Khan (31-3, 19 KOs) isn’t too worried about WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez’s weight advantage for their fight on May 7 on HBO pay-per-view. Khan says he walks around in the 160s in between fights, and he’s just going to add a little weight and go into the fight with Canelo at 165lbs.

Khan expects Canelo to come into the fight at around 170lbs, so he doesn’t think that Canelo will have a huge weight advantage over him like many boxing fans think. Of course, if Canelo rehydrates to the 180s, then that would make it a different story.

Miguel Cotto’s trainer Freddie Roach believes that Canelo rehydrated to 185lbs for the Canelo vs. Cotto fight last November. If that’s the case, then Khan could still find himself outweighed by 20 pounds when he gets inside the ring at 165lbs against an 185lb Canelo. That’s not good.

“I know the fight is at a catch-weight. I have never fought at 155 before but I walk around at probably 160-plus so it will be me fighting at my natural weight,” Khan said to skysports.com. “Come fight night I will probably be about 165 as well. I can see Alvarez maybe being even a little heavier than that, maybe going into the ring at 170, but we know what we need to do.”

It might be in Khan’s best interest not to put on too much weight for this fight, because he’s going to need to be able to utilize his speed so that he can land shots and get away quickly the way that Floyd Mayweather Jr. did in his fight against Canelo in 2013. If you look at the Mayweather-Canelo fight, you can see right away that Mayweather didn’t bulk up at all for the fight.

He simply came into the fight the normal weight that he always had in the past. Khan can’t afford to be slowed down for the Canelo fight because he’s going to need to be able to get in and out quickly to avoid getting nailed by Canelo’s heavy shots. Khan won’t be able to move laterally around the ring like he normally does if he’s carrying around extra weight for the fight. He’s got to be quick and light on his feet for him to have his best chance of beating the 25-year-old Canelo.

“Whatever he brings to the table, I am going to have an answer for,” Khan said about Canelo. “To move up a weight or two and fight a world champion, someone that everyone is going to say is going to walk through Amir Khan. I really believe that I have the chance to beat him and by beating someone like Alvarez it will definitely make me one of the best fighters in the world.”

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Beating Canelo won’t make Khan the best in the sport, but it will definitely create a name for him for the time being. The problem is that Khan would need to be able to prove himself against Canelo in a rematch, and then he would be pressured to fight the likes of Gennady Golovkin and other middleweights. If Khan moves back down in weight, he would need to prove himself by beating Kell Brook, Danny Garcia, Tim Bradley and Keith Thurman.

I don’t know that Khan will be able to hold together against all of those fighters without getting beaten repeatedly. Khan would need to have done a complete turnaround from the fighter that he was before in order to beat Canelo twice, Golovkin and the other top fighters. Khan has loads of talent, but mentally he doesn’t seem to be able to harness his talent to accomplish things to take advantage of his physical tools the way that Mayweather did during his career.



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