By Yannis Mihanos: Amir “King” Khan (31-3, 19 KOs) for the last few years has been searching for the golden ticket in looking to get fights against Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao, but neither of those fights happened. The time spent trying to get those big fights has cost Khan dearly with him missing out on important fights such as rematches against Danny Garcia and Lamont Peterson, as well as a big fight against Kell Brook.
All these would have been fights crucial for his career and credibility. And here we are today after the shocking news of Khan’s agreement to fight WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (46-1-1, 32 KOs) on May 7 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Canelo-Khan fight will be taking place on HBO.
Khan has finally found a golden ticket, but at what expense?
Now all I hear from people is that Khan can’t do this and Khan won’t do that. The majority of the public is set against him. Nobody has acknowledged fully his brave decision to step up and face one of the strongest fighters in boxing in Canelo Alvarez.
Before even the match has started, Khan appears dead and buried in the minds of a lot of boxing fans. No one really expects for the 29-year-old Khan to do anything. Some also expect him to lose emphatically by the way of knockout in the early rounds.
The common opinion is that the size and strength of Canelo will be too much for him to handle like it has happened for many other fighters who have faced him.
Combine all this with Khan’s questionable chin and you all know where this leads.
Some worry about Khan’s health and even believe that he’s about to go on a suicide mission in a no way street. But I don’t see it this way.
Khan, under the right circumstance, can beat Canelo in my view. Canelo has weaknesses; he is slow and heavy, often slowing down in the late rounds. Canelo escaped against Erislandy Lara with a narrow 12 round points decision in their fight in July 2014.
I believe that Khan can create big problems for Canelo. Last November, Miguel Cotto not only couldn’t match the larger Canelo in youth, but he also couldn’t match him in strength, size and speed.
Khan is still ambitious and hungry for the top. At his best, he can be extremely fast and accurate.
Some fans see Canelo’s loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. as a sign that Khan can follow Mayweather’s blueprint. So they encourage Khan to dance around, avoid all the big punches and bombs by Canelo while counter punching. But that’s not who Khan is. Khan is clearly an attacking fighter, a modernized version of Manny Pacquiao. So that cannot be the plan.
Overall, I believe that the Canelo-Khan fight won’t go down as easy people expect.
There is pressure in this fight mostly for Canelo. He is the one expected to win. He is the hot favorite.
IBF/IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin is waiting for his call and after this fight there can be no further delay. A further delay might brand Canelo a coward in the minds of boxing fans.
I like Canelo’s attitude to choose and face the best out there. That’s what big champions do.
On the other hand, Khan has been waiting for so long to let that opportunity to pass so easily. This might be his best chance ever. Remember this people: This will be a war.
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