By Scott Gilfoid: Amir Khan is talking about possibly fighting in the summer Olympics for Pakistan this year in Rios. This is a move that could potentially upset a lot of Khan’s fans in the UK, where he’s lived and fought for in the 2004 Olympics. Khan captured a Silver medal for Britain in that Olympics.
It’s hard to understand why the 29-year-old Khan would want to fight in the Olympics again at his age. It’s even more difficult to comprehend why he would fight for Pakistan rather than his home country of Britain.
According to the Daily Mail, the World Boxing Council will suspend for two years any professional fighter that is ranked by them or who holds one of their titles. Since Khan is ranked at #1 by the WBC and is looking to get a title shot against WBC welterweight champion Danny Garcia, he could be shooting himself in the foot if he takes part in the summer Olympics.
Khan was knocked out in the 6th round last May by former WBC middleweight belt holder Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. It was a really bad knockout in which Khan was out cold on his back after getting hit with a right hand that he didn’t see coming from Canelo. With that kind of a knockout blow, it might not be good for Khan to be taking part in the Olympics. Further, Khan put on a lot of muscle weight for the Canelo fight. He’s going to need to trim that muscle off if he wants to be able to fight at welterweight in the Olympics.
As two-time Olympic gold medalist Vasy Lomachenko pointed out this week, Olympic participants need to make weight each day they participate in the Olympic events for six straight days. While it may be possible for a fighter to drain down from 160 to 147 to make weight for the first day, it’s not possible to drain down for six straight days to keep making weight.
This means that Khan would likely need to fight at middleweight if he takes part in the Olympics in the summer unless he can take the muscle weight off in a hurry to possibly get down to 154. Getting to 147 would seem to be impossible at this point for Khan. I don’t think he can do it that quickly in time for the Olympics this summer in Rio.
“The WBC reiterates its total opposition to allowing professionals to fight amateurs in Rio 2016. This is a scenario where severe mismatches could end in tragedies,” said WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman to the dailymail.co.uk. “All our champions and top 15 ranked boxers are forbidden to participate. If they do so they will be banned for two years.”
Given the WBC’s stance on professionals taking part in the Olympics, Khan is going to need to think hard about whether it’s worth to lose out on the chance to fight for the WBC welterweight title. If he can’t fight for that belt against the very beatable Danny Garcia, then Khan will have little choice but to fight for the WBA strap against welterweight belt holder Keith “One Time” Thurman, or the IBF title against Kell Brook or WBO belt against Jessie Vargas. Those are not good options for Khan.
“We are in constant contact with them on this issue. It is a matter of serious consideration for Amir,” said British Boxing Board of control general secretary Robert Smith to the dailymail.co.uk. “I cannot see any chance at all of the WBC relaxing their position before the Rio Games begin in August. Nor do we think they should.”
So there it is. Khan is going to be hurting himself if he chooses to fight in the 2016 Olympics in Rios. He needs to decide whether he feels it’s worth it to compete this year. Personally, I think it’s a really bad idea for Khan to take part in the Olympics right now because he’s coming off a bad loss to Canelo, and his weight is too high for him to be able to fight on a daily basis at welterweight in the Olympics.
To compete in that weight class, Khan would need to be right at the weight at 147 for him not to drain himself each day in having to make weight for the six days of competition. Khan was said to be around 160 for the Canelo fight. Khan looked solid at the weight without any fat to lose. This means Khan would need to drop at least 10 pounds if he wants to fight at welterweight in the Olympics. Even then, he would still likely need to lose three to five pounds to make the 147lb limit each day.