Amir Khan: One of the Most Gifted Fighters to Not Fulfill His Potential?

By Boxing News - 12/20/2016 - Comments

Image: Amir Khan: One of the Most Gifted Fighters to Not Fulfill His Potential?

By Rameez Haider: After my previous article on Floyd Mayweather, a lot of the feedback people gave surrounded opponents Mayweather should have fought and one of the names that cropped up on more than one occasion was Amir Khan. This got me thinking about Amir Khan and where his career has gone.

I believe that Amir Khan is one of the most gifted fighters in the world, yet this is a statement many people will look to disagree with. I am hoping to put a point across and see how it fits with the readers.

When you look at the attributes he possesses, he has without doubt one of the fastest if not the fastest set of hands in boxing. The way he puts his combinations together is fantastic in full flow. In a recent interview, Danny Garcia was asked how it was facing Khan in the ring, to which he responded at times he felt he was being hit by Khan and the Referee at the same time Khan was that fast. In fact, a host of respected trainers and fighters have all spoken about the speed of Amir Khan and the fact that he throws 3 to 4 punches where others throw 1 to 2.

His movement is also very good. He is light on his feet and navigates well around the ring. This has been more apparent since he has been with Virgil Hunter. If you look at his fights prior to the Canelo fight, you can see he is much more intelligent in his movement. Unlike previous fights where at times it seemed like he was running around the ring and getting into trouble when people tied him up and forced their strength on them, he is a lot harder to pin down. This was very apparent when he fought Lamont Peterson, which lead to him getting a point deducted for pushing, simply because he did not have the awareness and the movement to keep out of those situations, as opposed to when he fought Collazo and Alexander, where Khan was next to impossible to close-down.

One thing for sure people can’t question, is his heart. Amir Khan has never backed down from a challenge. His chin is something which many people question and it is something I will bring up later, however Khan has gone in with some of the biggest punchers in recent times such as Maidana and Garcia not to mention stepping up in weight class to take on Canelo. Whether that decision was money orientated or not, it still takes a lot of courage to make that step up.

When you look at his record he has victories against the likes of Barrera, Kotelnik, Malignaggi, Maidana, Judah, Collazo, Alexander and Algieri which is by no means a bad record and has been a World Champion. What is more important for me though is the losses he has had.

His four losses came in the form of 3 knock out losses against Prescott, Garcia and Canelo and a narrow points loss to Peterson. The analysis of these losses answers a lot of questions in my opinion.

When Khan lost against Prescott, he walked into the ring like he had already won the fight and believed his own hype. Because of this, Khan got caught clean with zero defence. When people say, he has a weak chin, this may well be the case, but any boxer in that position getting caught totally flush with no defence whatsoever would have ended up on the canvas. Though I put this loss down to a lack of experience, I think it had a massive impact on the rest of his career. Khan is a proud guy and after this fight, questions were raised about the weak chin and ever since then his mind set has been to try and prove that this is not the case.

When Khan teamed up with Roach, offensively it was a match made in heaven, but defensively it was the total opposite. Against lesser fighters, Khan’s great attributes combined with this super offensive style was great to watch, but against tougher opponents Khan came undone. When Khan fought Maidana, I think it showed this perfectly. He boxed phenomenally until he was caught. I have never seen anyone make Maidana look like such an average fighter. But then the lack in concentration meant again he got caught and had to dig deep to make it to the end of the fight.

Khan’s next loss came against Peterson and again a similar pattern occurred. For large portions of the fight Khan out-boxed Peterson especially in the 1st half of the fight. But again, the mind set let Khan down and his lack of defensive skills meant Peterson was able to bully Khan in the second half of the fight which lead to Khan pushing and losing points. It was these points that cost Khan the fight.

His third loss against Garcia followed the same path. Khan was out-boxing Garcia and making him look completely average, but the loss in concentration meant he got caught yet again with no defence and against someone who punches like Garcia there was only going to be one outcome.

When Khan fought Canelo, people gave Khan no chance in the fight, yet for the 1st four rounds Khan made Canelo look average and was putting on a boxing performance. In fact, Khan was winning the fight on the judge’s score cards until yet again the concentration dropped and he got caught with a huge shot with no defence and was knocked out.

People always refer to Khan having a glass chin and this being the reason he never hit the heights he could reached. But there are a few interesting points in regards to this. Does Khan have a weak chin? Absolutely, but is this the reason he failed, I absolutely disagree. Since Khan has been with Hunter, he has gradually adapted to the demands from his new trainer and seemed so much more assured. When you see his fights against Collazo and Alexander, you saw Khan looking stronger, faster and not getting caught. More importantly his movement around the ring was much better and these guys were unable to pin him down. I accept that the level of competition wasn’t the best but the improvements were there for everyone to see. But then against Algieri, Khan’s mindset didn’t seem on point and again it was like he walked in expecting to win comfortably and thus he was forced to struggle in the fight. This was something Khan himself accepted post fight.