By Dan Ambrose: Trainer Virgil Hunter thinks Amir Khan (31-3, 19 KOs) has enough size and power to hurt WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (46-1-1, 32 KOs) in their fight this Saturday night. There’s a belief by some fans and writers that Canelo won’t be bothered by Khan’s punches because he’s moving up in weight from the welterweight division and isn’t a true middleweight like the 170+ pound Canelo.
Miguel Cotto wasn’t able to hurt Canenlo with his punches last November and Cotto is a much bigger puncher than Khan. Canelo was able to absorb the shots from the smaller Cotto without showing any signs of being bothered by the shots.
Cotto came into the fight in the low 160s, and he looked much lighter than Canelo. We don’t know how much Canelo weighed in that fight, but some believe that he came into the fight in the low 180s. Canelo doesn’t weight drained this week like he was for the Cotto fight, so that suggests that he’ll be coming into this fight later than he did last time. Hunter still believes that Khan can hurt Canelo with his shots if he lands cleanly.
“Can Amir hurt Canelo? Yeah. He most definitely can hurt him,” said Hunter to Fighthub.
Hunter should know about whether Khan can hurt Canelo because Khan has been sparring big middleweights the same size as the 170+lb Canelo, so he should know if Khan can hurt someone like the popular Mexican fighter. Speed is power, and Khan has very fast hands. The last time Canelo fought someone with Khan’s speed was in his fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2014, and he badly lost that fight by a 12 round decision.
Hunter expects Canelo to come out trying to box Khan rather than slugging with him because he sees the 25-year-old Canelo as being primarily a boxer for the most part. Canelo is a counter puncher, and he tends to load up on left hooks when countering. If he doesn’t have anything to work off in countering, then Canelo will box all night long as long as it’s working for him. In the Mayweather fight, it clearly wasn’t working for Canelo, as he fell behind badly in the first nine rounds. Canelo did turn to slugging in the 10th, but he was too slow on his feet and far behind to have a chance to win the fight.
“Well he can box so that possibility exists. We’re ready for him to box, I believe he will,” said Hunter. “I’ve never really seen a fight that he’s had where he really had to just like go get it and dog it out, so to speak, because there’s not too many fights where he’s been behind. But he’s a boxer first and foremost, a counter puncher…that’s who you are. If you have to go to something else, unless that’s part of you too, it can be difficult, particularly on a night that has so much pressure attached to it.”
I think it’s pretty obvious that Canelo will be looking to box Khan because he’s not going to be able to land his big power shots against a moving target. That style only works for Canelo when he’s got one of the lead-footed opponents with no movement and no hands speed like Alfredo Angulo and James Kirkland.