By Scott Gilfoid: Amir Khan blew his stack earlier today at the press conference at the Hilton Hotel with journeyman Phil Lo Greco. Khan took exception to a comment the 33-year-old Lo Greco made, and then stood up and tossed a glass of water in his face.
Khan had to be held back from trying to get at the Canadian Lo Greco at that point. It wasn’t a real scuffle. It was more about Khan wanting to quiet Lo Greco down, as he was taking a lot of lot of verbal shots about his life, career and things that he had allegedly said on Twitter.
Today’s press conference was for Khan and Lo Greco to discuss their April 21 fight at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, England. This is the 31-year-old Khan’s comeback fight after being out of the ring for close to 2 years. The junior middleweight Lo Greco was chosen as warm-up fight for Khan to look good against.
Lo Greco will need to come down to 147 to face Khan instead of the fight taking place in his own weight division at 154. Lo Greco thinks he’s being asked to drain down to 147 in order to make Khan look better than he really is, because he’s going to be weakened in having to lose the weight. Lo Greco feels the fight should take place at 154 if Khan is serious about wanting to fight Kell Brook later this year.
“You’re a salesman. You signed with Al Haymon,” Lo Greco said at the kickoff press conference on Tuesday. “You’re looking for a way not to fight Kell Brook. If you’re fighting Kell Brook, you’d fight me at 154. You’re my tune-up. This fight here is not my biggest payday, not even close,” Lo Greco said.
Khan’s promoter Eddie Hearn looked embarrassed at this point, and made an effort at defending the purse that he gave to Lo Greco, saying , “I thought it was a lot of money.”
”After the Canelo loss, you went on a losing streak,” Lo Greco said to Khan. “Family, wife and then you go out and Tweet the heavyweight champion of the world. What is wrong with you? You go out and say to the heavyweight champion of the world that he can have your leftovers?” Lo Greco said.
At this point Khan stood up and threw a glass of water into the face of Lo Greco. Khan then tried to get at Lo Greco, but was held back by Hearn and some of the team members.
Hearn: “Let’s talk boxing.”
Hearn then made it clear that he wanted Lo Greco to stick to boxing comments, and to steer away from getting personal with Khan by talking about his family.
For all intents and purposes, the press conference was over at this point in terms of interesting comments. Lo Greco was effectively put on his leash with Khan tossing water into his face, Hearn lecturing him, and the pro-Khan crowd shouting at him. Lo Greco played it low-key for the remainder of the press conference by playing it cool and not ripping the upset Khan apart.
”I want to be in a dog fight,” Lo Greco said. ”Does he want to be in a dog fight? I know what happens when you pursue your career after you’ve been knocked out several times. It only gets worse. Joe Calzaghe knee when to call it quits. He [Khan] should know when to call it quits. That’s what I’m saying. I’m a student of the game. [It was at this point the pro-Khan crowd started screaming at Lo Greco and wouldn’t let him talk without him shouting]. This isn’t Pakistan vs. India. This is a boxing match, guys,” Lo Greco said.
Lo Greco brings up a good point about Khan needing to know when to call it quits with his career. It’s pretty obvious that Khan’s best days as a contender and world champion are effectively over at this point. Khan’s chances of winning a world title at 147 are virtually nonexistent. Khan hasn’t held a world title since losing his IBF/WBA 140 lb. titles to Lamont Peterson by a 12 round split decision on December 10, 2011. That was almost 7 years ago. I mean, come on. Khan lost to former WBC middleweight champion Saul Canelo Alvarez by a 6th round knockout in his last fight on May 6, 2016. It doesn’t look likely that Khan is going to be able to come back from that loss to beat any of the world champions at 147 in Errol Spence Jr., Keith Thurman, Lucas Matthysse or the winner of Jeff Horn vs. Terence Crawford. It’s likely that Hearn will try and target newly crowned WBA World welterweight champion Matthysse for Khan to possibly fight in his second fight of his comeback this summer. We’ll have to see. Hearn might choose to have Khan fight another soft job in order to wait for a big payday fight between him and Kell Brook in December. Khan can make a lot of money fighting Brook. If Khan loses to Matthysse in a failed attempt to capture the WBA ‘regular’ 147 lb. belt, it would put a damper on a Khan-Brook fight in December.
”I just want to apologize not to him [Lo Greco], but to you guys,” Khan said. ”This is not an easy fight. No fight is easy. This is not a tune-up fight. I’m going to go in there and do what I do best. Lo Greco said maybe I’m past my best. I’m 31; I’m at my peak of my career. [Lo Greco puts his hand to head as if to say, ‘Oh brother.’]. I feel better than I was at 28. Boxing is what’s important to me. I’m going to finish it at a high [Khan’s career]. The next few years are very important to me,” Khan said.
Khan doesn’t appear to have his feet planted firmly on the ground with his comment about him being at the ”peak of my career.” Khan is clearly not at the peak of his career at 31. He’s coming off of a 2-year layoff and a brutal knockout loss to Canelo Alvarez in early 2016. Khan is not at the peak of his career. Khan is trying to pick up the broken pieces of what was once a good career at this stage. Whether Khan and get back to where he once was at the zenith of his career in early 2011 is unclear. For Khan to get back to where he was, he’ll need to beat the likes of Spence, Matthysse, Thurman or the winner of the Horn-Crawford. Beating Matthysse really won’t say much about Khan if he chooses to go that route, because he’s seen as a paper champion by a lot of boxing fans. Matthysse captured the WBA World welterweight belt last Saturday night in stopping little known contender Tewa Kiram in the 8th round. This is the WBA’s secondary belt for the 147 lb. weight class. Keith Thurman has the main WBA belt, called the “WBA Super World’ welterweight title.
”I’m very motivated. It if goes 12, I’m going to give this guy a beating for 12 rounds,” Khan said about Lo Greco.
It’s not going to prove anything for Khan to beat up on the journeyman Lo Greco. After all, he is a journeyman, who is being asked to move down from his normal weight class of 154 to fight Khan at 147. Lo Greco was knocked out in 3 rounds by Errol Spence at junior middleweight 3 years ago in June 2015. Khan should at least do what Spence did in offering to fight Lo Greco at 154 to make the fight a little fairer.
