By Scott Gilfoid: Amir Khan says his punches had zero effect on the much heavier WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez last Saturday night in their clash at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Khan says one of the reasons why he feels his punches did nothing to Canelo was because of the weight advantage the 25-year-old middleweight had over him.
Khan says he came into the ring around 161lbs for the fight, but he believes that Canelo weight 180lbs on the night. In looking at the two fighters, it’s hard to disagree with Khan. Canelo looked considerably bigger in that fight.
The punches that Canelo was barely missing Khan with in the first five rounds would have knocked out any welterweight in the world if he had landed those shots. Canelo was a little hulk in the ring with red hair instead of green. It was only a matter of time before he connected with one of his big shots to knock Khan out.
“Canelo must have been around 180lbs, he’s a big dude. Even when I was hitting him, I could see he wasn’t moving or wasn’t hurt or anything,” said Khan to skysports.com. “I jumped up too high. I didn’t expect Canelo to be that big. I’m not going to say they cheated me or anything, because I took the fight. I knew what I was getting into.”
How in the heck did Khan not know that Canelo was going to be in the 180s, when Miguel Cotto’s trainer Freddie Roach said after Cotto’s loss to Canelo last November that he thought Canelo had rehydrated into the 180s for that fight. Cotto came into the fight against Canelo in the low 160s, and he looked 20 pounds lighter than the Mexican star. Cotto’s punches had zero effect on Canelo in the same way that Khan’s did.
When Cotto would land his shots, Canelo didn’t move an inch because he had so much weight on him. That’s what happens when a much lighter guy steps up and faces someone that outweighs them by 15 to 20 pounds, as we saw in the Canelo-Khan fight. When you land a shot against someone with that kind of weight advantage, they don’t budge an inch.
That’s on Khan for not pushing for a rehydration clause to keep Canelo from rehydrating into the mid-170s to low 180s. Khan’s trainer Virgil Hunter said he wanted to be a fly on the wall to see how Canelo rehydrates 30 pounds overnight after he makes weight.
Canelo denied that he puts that much weight on, but when you look at the size difference between Khan and Canelo last Saturday, it was clear that Canelo was the much heavier fighter of the two. Khan should have taken the risk of pushing for a rehydration clause to limit Canelo from rehydrating past 167. At least if he had done that, there would have been only six pounds separating the two fighters rather than 20 pounds on the night.
“When a guy’s a lot bigger and a lot stronger, that’s what’s going to happen – but I’ve still got a lot left in me,” said Khan. . “I’m in the peak of my career, everything was going fine until that one big shot. Welterweight would be ideal. I probably walked into the ring at 161, 162lbs. I tried to eat and put more weight on but for some reason I just couldn’t,” said Khan.
Even with Canelo outweighing Khan y 20 pounds, it would have been a winnable fight for Khan if he had continued to throw punches in the 5th and 6th rounds. He stopped throwing punches in the 5th, and this gave Canelo confidence to pressure him without worry of getting nailed. Further, ESPN analyst Teddy Atlas noticed that Khan tried to throw a left hook at the moment that Canelo hit him with a right hand for the knockout blow in the 6th.
Atlas does not understand why Khan was trying to throw left hooks against a guy as big and as strong as Canelo. Atlas thinks Khan should have been throwing straight punches and jabs rather than hooks. Khan had been knocked out in the past by Breidis Prescott and Danny Garcia when he attempted to hit them with left hooks. Khan’s trainer Virgil Hunter should have trained that out of Khan by telling him in forceful terms that he should not throw left hooks against Canelo, and yet Khan was throwing left hooks all night long.