By Dan Ambrose: Trainer Virgil Hunter was really surprised at how much his fighter Amir Khan (31-3, 19 KOs) has filled recently in him bulking up to 167. Hunter hadn’t see Khan for a while, and when he did, he saw how much heavier he’d become.
The 29-year-old had really filled out since the last time Hunter had been with him. Hunter now questions whether Khan will ever see 147 again after his May 7 fight against WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. That’s potentially a negative for Khan because he has the opportunity to fight IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook in a big money clash in the UK later this year or next year.
Brook will likely want to put his IBF 147lb title on the line rather than fight Khan in a catch-weight fight at junior middleweight or fight him at the full weight for the 154lb division. The IBF might not like the idea of Brook taking a fight outside of the weight class.
“I hadn’t seen Amir; he was still in the U.K.,” said Hunter to ringtv.com. “When he came to camp, I was quite surprised at how he’d grown. He filled out. I had a conditioning coach with him over there eight weeks before he came. I didn’t know who he’d fight; I just wanted to give him a head start.
Now that Khan has put on some weight, Hunter is no longer concerned as much about Khan being outweighed by Canelo Alvarez in their fight in May. Hunter already doesn’t rate Canelo as a big puncher, but he’s now more than ever seeing this fight as an even contest with two equally sized fighters.
One thing that could possibly hurt Khan is his inactivity. He’s not fought since last year in May 2015 in his fight against Chris Algieri. Khan wasted a lot of time after that fight trying to get the likes of Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao to fight him. However, neither of them showed interest in taking the fight, and this left Khan with nothing to show for all his wasted time hunting for a big money contest against one of the two stars of the sport.
Luckily for Khan, Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya contacted him and asked him if he’d be interested in facing Canelo Alvarez. Khan liked the idea from the start because he believes he’s got the tools to defeat Canelo and take his WBC middleweight title.
“When he came in at 166, 167, with his abs already quite pronounced and things like that, I remember saying to myself: ‘He’d have a problem getting down to 147.’ I don’t know if he’ll ever see 47 again, said Hunter. “He’ll have to scale down to 55, not go up. If he’s at 60, 61 the next night, that’ll be a good weight gain. So I don’t think weight will be that much of a factor.”
If Khan is never going to fight at 147 again, then he’ll need to think about doing what Canelo has been doing in dragging welterweights to 154 or 155 to fight them. Khan has the star power to pull welterweights up in weight if he wants to. There’s not really a lot of big names to fight in the welterweight division other than Brook.
Now that Manny Pacquiao is retiring, it leaves only Tim Bradley and Kell Brook for Khan fight to fight at 147. It might be in Khan’s best interest to stay at middleweight because if he moves to junior middleweight, then he would need to fight guys like the Charlo brothers, Vanes Martirosyan, Demetrius Andrade, Julian Williams, Liam Smith and Erislandy Lara.
Those guys are more trouble than they’re worth. It’s better for Khan if he moves up to 160 and tries to make thing happen in that weight class unless he wants to pull a Canelo and fight at 155 and drag welterweights up to that weight class so that he can have a weight advantage.
If Khan beats Canelo on May 7, then it’s going to be hard for Khan to resist staying in that weight class because he’ll have chances for big fights against the likes of Gennady Golovkin, Daniel Jacobs and Billy Joe Saunders. If Khan can’t make weight at 147 any longer, then it’ll limit his options for big fights.
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