(Photo Credit: Martin McNeil – Hogan Photos/Golden Boy Promotions) By Dan Ambrose: Amir Khan (31-3, 19 KOs) is still not sure whether he should defend the WBC middleweight title if he beats WBC champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (46-1-1, 32 KOs) in their catch-weight fight at 155lbs two months from now on May 7. Khan says he’s entirely focused on the Canelo fight right now, but he plans on meeting with his team to make a decision whether to face Golovkin if he beats Canelo.
That would be a very big step for Khan to take the fight against Golovkin. It would be a major victory for Khan to get past Canelo, but then to take an arguably bigger risk by facing Golovkin, it might be a little too much for Khan.
“I’m not looking past this fight to be honest with you,” Khan said to IFL TV. “I like Triple G. I think he’s a great fighter. If I win this fight and I get told to fight Triple G, I’ll have to sit down with my team and decide what happens. For the moment, we are not focusing on anything. We are not looking at that [Golovkin]. We are focusing on Alvarez. This is going to be a very, very hard fight. This is where I belong. It’s not going to be an easy night for me. I can’t lose focus for one second. If I lose focus for one second, I can get hurt badly,” Khan said.
Golovkin would be an absolute nightmare opponent for someone like Khan to fight. While Khan might be able to make it past the slow-footed Canelo by using continuous movement for 12 rounds to win a close decision, that tactic probably wouldn’t work against Golovkin because he cuts off the ring so effectively, and he would make each punch count. Khan might end up getting knocked out early against Golovkin if he couldn’t avoid his big power shots to the head and body.
You can imagine that Khan would be getting tremendous pressure to face Golovkin if he could beat Canelo. The boxing world would be clamoring for a Khan-Golovkin fight, if only to see if Khan could pull off two consecutive upset wins. Beating Canelo would be monstrous win for Khan, but if he could then defeat Golovkin as well, it would surely take Khan to the next level with his career. The fans will want Khan to take the fight with Golovkin, and I think he would end up giving in and facing him rather than being seen as a chicken.
Khan will look potentially bad in the eyes of the boxing public if he vacates the WBC title after beating Canelo. The fans are going to insist that Khan take the Golovkin fight so that they can see whether he can pull off another major upset. It would also be troubling if Khan chose to insist on a catch-weight for Golovkin to fight at like Canelo.
I don’t think the World Boxing Council would give Khan the green light to use a catch-weight on Golovkin like they might possibly do with the highly popular Canelo. Khan isn’t as young as Canelo, and doesn’t have nearly the same star power.
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