By Gerardo Granados: Last Saturday night as the reader must already know, a knockout of the year nominee took place, when the underdog Amir Khan tried to achieve greatness challenging the reigning undisputed WBC 155 pounds belt holder Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and getting knocked out by him in the 6th round at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
It was no surprise to see how the much bigger and stronger Canelo Alvarez was able to knockout for the full count the brave welterweight challenger Amir Khan, but indeed, it was a scary knockout and we all saw how everyone reacted when Khan fall unconscious to the canvas.
I am certain that if Khan had have enough punching power to make Alvarez respect him, he could as well had lost, but for sure, it would have considerably increased his chances to win a unanimous decision.
Amir boxed really good and you could notice his hunger, imposing the distance and pace of the fight, showed not only better hand speed and mobility as expected, Khan made Saul miss many punches by a mile, and also proved how easy he could tag Alvarez. Before the fight ended, I had Khan clearly winning 4-1. Maybe the reader can find a way to explain how was it that Canelo was ahead on the official score cards because I simply can’t.
After the fight ended, Khan made no excuses for his loss and behaved with class. Stated that he planned to move back to the welterweight division, where I think he could find no trouble getting a shot at Danny Garcia for the WBC welter strap.
Khan stated that he dared to be great, for me even if he lost, now no one can ever claim that he avoids dangerous opposition or that he hand picks only tailor made opponents to look good like his last Saturday opponent often does.
At the post fight interview Canelo stated very clear that he wanted to fight against Gennady GGG Golovkin and also said that the belts means nothing, that he would fight GGG for honor and pride. Well for Canelo it might be a little too late to look for it, because Khan already has taken the honor and pride away from him. How come Khan was able to move 8 pounds up through two weight divisions, but Canelo can’t move up five to the limit of his own division?
Amir Khan behaved like a hungry lion king and yes, he lost the fight, but in the process, won respect from fight fans and no one will ever be able take away from him the pride and honor that he won that night. I truly believe so, but what about the reader. Do you agree?