(Photo Credit: Martin McNeil – Hogan Photos/Golden Boy Promotions) By Dan Ambrose: Amir Khan (31-3, 19 KOs) is not worried at all about the punching power of WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (46-1-1, 32 KOs). The entire question of whether Khan can beat Canelo surrounds whether he can handle the 25-year-old Canelo’s punching power.
If Khan can take Canelo’s best shots without getting knocked out in this fight, then it’s going to be awfully tough Khan to lose this fight. Other than Khan’s questionable decision loss to Lamont Peterson in 2011, he’s never been out-boxed by any of his opponents. Khan has always had the superior boxing skills that have enabled him to beat his opponents skillfully.
The fights where Khan has clearly lost where his knockout defeats to Danny Garcia and Breidis Prescott. This suggests that if Canelo cannot knock Khan out in their fight on May 7, then it’s going to be next to impossible for Canelo to win the fight unless he gets the victory by a questionable decision.
Canelo has a couple of those type of wins over Austin Trout and Erislandy Lara, so there’s a potential that we could see something like that happen. The judges give Canelo rounds even when he’s being out-punched. They likely focus on Canelo’s superior power when scoring the rounds. If that’s going to be the case for the Canelo-Khan fight, then Khan is going to need to throw a lot more punches so that he can make sure he gets the victory, because he’ll never be able to match the stronger and heavier Canelo’s punching power.
“A lot of people are saying to me, ‘why do you want to move up to middleweight and fight this huge fighter, this huge puncher?’ and I said ‘look guys, I really believe I can win this fight,’” Khan said to espn.com. “I know I can take his power, take his speed and I really have the tools to win this fight.”
Canelo does not have the kind of punching power to level his opponents unless they’re standing still and trading with him like we saw with James Kirkland, who foolishly went up against the ropes in their fight last year in May. That was a really bad move for Kirkland to use in that fight because Canelo does well against fighters that are trapped or who look to trade with him in the way that he was doing.
We saw in the Canelo vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr. fight that Canelo is not good at handling movers. He misses with his shots, and is stuck landing only occasionally. It was the same thing in Canelo’s fight against Erislandy Lara. Canelo only landed a handful of head shots in the fight. Most of his punches landed were to the body of Lara. There was no way that Canelo should have won that fight, but somehow two of the judges scored the fight in his favor.
Khan thinks he can win the fight, but he also accepted the bout because he’s been turned down by other superstars Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao. Those fighters didn’t want to face him. Canelo might not be as popular as Mayweather and Pacquiao, but he’s at least the third most popular guy behind them.
Khan could have made a bundle fighting IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook if he had wanted to, but the interest in that fight in the United States would have been lukewarm at best. Brook isn’t a household name with the casual boxing fans.
“I’ve been let down so many times in having the biggest fights. There’s a lot of big names I’ve wanted to fight but just couldn’t get those fights. I’m up against a guy who is a great fighter. Alvarez is a dangerous fighter, he’s strong.”
I wouldn’t call Canelo a great fighter the way Khan is. Canelo is a good fighter. He’s clearly capable of beating guys smaller than him, as he’s shown that his entire pro career. However, we’ve seen Canelo lose to Mayweather, and we’ve arguably seen Canelo lose to Lara and fight Austin Trout to a draw. That tells me that Canelo is not a great fighter. We saw Miguel Cotto give Canelo all kinds of problems last November despite being outweighed by a significant amout.
“I really promise you’re going to see a different Amir Khan in this fight,” Khan said. “This is my time now to shine. I want to show the world how good Amir Khan is.”
If Khan stays on the move for 12 rounds, jabs, throws single pot shots, and doesn’t try and throw combinations, then this is Khan’s fight to lose. He’s a much better fighter than Canelo in my book, has far superior hand speed, and is the much mobile of the two. I can’t see Canelo being able to handle Khan’s hand speed because it’s better Mayweather’s in my view. Khan just has to make sure that he doesn’t make the mistake of trying to throw combinations in this fight. Khan loves to throw combinations, and that’s what has got him into trouble in the past. He tries to combinations and gets nailed. He’s generally been fine when he’s thrown single shots and used his jab.
Marcos Maidana is the closest thing that Khan has come to facing someone as powerful as Canelo. Khan did an admirable job of defusing and neutralizing Maidana’s punching power in the first nine rounds of their fight in 2010. Khan got into trouble in the 10th round of that fight, when Maidana was able to land a hard looping right hand to the head that staggered him. To Khan’s credit, he was able to clinch his way out of the round to survive. Khan then came back in the 11th and 12th rounds to preserve his win by continuing to box, move and hold. If Khan can fight smart like that by staying on the move for 12 rounds, tying up Canelo when he gets close, then I think he can win this fight.
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