By Jeff Aranow: Amir Khan has nothing to be ashamed of tonight despite him losing to WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez by a 6th round knockout. Khan was knocked out badly in the 6th when Canelo finally was able to catch him with a big right hand to the head.
The fight was stopped officially at 2:37 of the 6th round by referee Kenny Bayless. Until that knockout, Canelo has been whiffing on his shots, and looking like the same fighter that had lost to Floyd Mayweather Jr. and had struggled to beat Erislandy Lara.
Canelo needs a ton of improvement with his punch accuracy if he’s to have any hope of ever beating someone like Gennady Golovkin. At this point, I think welterweight Keith Thurman would have a very good chance of beating Canelo. Khan made Canelo look like a limited fighter tonight in their fight at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Khan used frequent movement and blistering fast combinations to throw Canelo off. The movement that Khan used had Canelo tied in knots and nearly helpless to land anything. However, all it took for Canelo go from goat to hero was a right hand that he landed in the 6th that stretched Khan out and caused the fight to be stopped. Canelo had the equalizer to negate Khan’s superior talent and boxing ability.
The thing is, Canelo isn’t known for being a one-punch type of fighter. It’s just that Khan has such a bad chin that Canelo was able to stop him. Khan made it easy by throwing a left hand with nothing on it in terms of speed, and Canelo was able to counter him with the right to get the knockout. Khan was seriously hurt from the knockout.
You have to hope that this doesn’t mess up the remainder of Khan’s career by making him more susceptible to getting knocked out by other fighters. Khan hadn’t been knocked out since 2012, which is a good thing because it suggests that his punch resistance wasn’t hurt by his loss to Garcia. But tonight’ knockout loss for Khan has to be cause for concern.
What’s interesting is that Canelo was ahead on two of the three scorecards at the time of the stoppage. The scores were 48-47, 48-47 for Canelo, and 48-47 for Khan. Canelo looked like he was badly behind at the time of the stoppage. I only saw Canelo winning one, perhaps two rounds of the five rounds before getting the knockout.
“He is a fast fighter and I knew things would be competitive in the beginning,” Alvarez said. “But I knew they would come to my favor as the fight went on.”
Khan was able to neutralize Canelo’s pressure by using movement. This caused Canelo to miss many of his punches and look bad and really slow. Canelo didn’t do a great job of cutting off the ring with his short legs, and this made it easy for Khan to hit and get away without being punched by the 25-year-old Canelo.
Not being able to cut off the ring won’t be an issue against Gennady Golovkin, because he’ll likely be standing right in front of Khan all night long when/if the two of them face each other. But Canelo will need to be able to cut off the ring when he faces some of the faster middleweights like Chris Eubank Jr. and Billy Joe Saunders because both of those guys are able to move around the ring.
Canelo was able to land spearing body shots against Khan, but nothing with a lot of power on it. Canelo had to throw spearing body shots due to the movement from Khan, which kept him from being able to plant his fight and get everything he could on the shots.
What was noticeable was how uncomfortable Canelo looked when Khan would throw shots. Canelo does not seem comfortable when he’s forced to deal with punches being thrown back at him.
The fight took place at a catch-weight of 155lbs. However, Canelo looked like the bigger fighter inside the ring, and he definitely was the much stronger puncher of the two. Khan’s ability to get away from Canelo after landing shots had the Mexican fighter looking helpless until the 6th round.
Khan’s best punch of the fight was a hard right hand he landed to the head of Canelo in the 1st round. The punch had no effect on Canelo, as he just absorbed it without being bothered.
“People have known me only for my power, but I have many more qualities in the ring and I showed that,” Alvarez said to Yahoo Sports. “I think people saw more of me.”
You can’t say Canelo shined tonight despite the knockout because he was fighting a welterweight rather than a middleweight. Canelo should have been fighting Gennady Golovkin.
Khan can hold his head up high knowing that he gave Canelo all he could handle for six rounds before getting blasted out in the 6th.