By Scott Gilfoid: Amir Khan (31-4, 19 KOs) is still bugged about the comments journeyman Phil Lo Greco (28-3, 15 KOs) said about his family during the kickoff press conference last January, and he wants to punish the 33-year-old Canadian this month when they fight on April 21 at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, England.
If Khan loses the Lo Greco fight, which is a mismatch on paper, then it’s time for him to retire straightaway. There’s no coming back from a loss to a limited guy like Lo Greco, especially if it’s a knockout loss for the 31-year-old Khan. The thing is, there’s no way of knowing whether Khan’s shaky chin will hold up on him in this fight, because he’s been hurt by smaller guys like Briedis Prescott, Willie Limond, Julio Diaz, Marcos Maidana and Danny Garcia. Lo Greco hits at least as hard if not harder than Prescott, Diaz and Limond.
If those guys were able to hurt Khan, then Lo Greco can too if he’s able to land anything. Lo Greco is so incredibly slow of hand. It’s going to be hard for him to land much of anything in the fight unless he times Khan’s attacks and catches him with a counter shot.
Whether Khan is truly still upset or is simply milking the incident to create some fake buzz is unclear. It’s been three months, and you would think that he’s put it behind him by now. It’s not as if Lo Greco has still been trash talking Khan. He’s almost shut up completely.
For the boxing fans that have already forgotten the incident, Khan threw water into the face of the short 5’8” Lo Greco during the press conference after he said this about him:
”After the Canelo loss, you went on a losing streak, family, wife and then 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?”
After Khan threw water into the face of Lo Greco, the audience members were shouting him, and many of them seemed riled up in defense of Amir. Lo Greco was essentially muzzled at that point, and said nothing of note for the remainder of the press conference.
There’s been zero talk of the Khan vs. Lo Greco fight from the boxing public whatsoever. Of course, it’s the job of Khan’s promoter Eddie Hearn o Matchroom Boxing to market his fights, to try and create interest. I’m not sure why there haven’t been tons of press releases, conference calls, and mini-tours around England to drum up support for the Khan-Lo Greco fight. You would think that Hearn should have done some of this already. You can argue strongly that the Khan vs. Lo Greco fight has been under publicized up to this point, because there should be much more noise about it.
“He got personal at the press conference and that’s not right,” said Khan via Fight News. “He’s going to pay for that. Talk about boxing, talk about me getting KO’d or getting beat – but going into my personal life is disrespectful and that’s made me angry.”
This fight is such a mismatch thought. It really doesn’t matter if Khan gets angry or not. He’s going to beat Lo Greco with ease unless he gets clipped with something. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Lo Greco knocks Khan out cold if he lands a halfway decent punch in the fight, because his punch resistance has never been good during his career. Khan’s brutal 6th round knockout loss to Saul Canelo Alvarez in his last fight in May of 2016 is worrisome. It doesn’t matter that it’s now been 23 months since that knockout. There’s a very real potential that Khan could get knocked out again if Lo Greco connects with anything in this fight.
Here are Khan’s knockout losses in his career:
• Saul Canelo Alvarez – KO 6
• Danny Garcia – TKO 4
• Briedis Prescott – KO 1
Those are all devastating knockout losses for Khan. These weren’t just normal knockouts where a guy is stunned and the referee quickly stops the contest. Khan was badly hurt in each of them.
Khan was also hurt in these three fights:
• Willie Limond – knocked Khan down in the 6th
• Marcos Maidana – Khan hurt in the 10th and almost stopped
• Julio Diaz – Khan knocked down in the 4th and hurt multiple times in the fight
As you can see, Khan has some issues in taking heavy shots in 6 of his 35 career fights. So in other words, Khan has been hurt in 17 percent of his fights. That’s pretty high if you ask me, especially given that he’s only fought 4 punchers during his entire 13-year pro career. The rest of the guys that Khan has fought aren’t big punchers.
“I want to show him who’s boss and put it on him, he needs to watch what he says,” said Khan in still making noise about Lo Greco. He’s an idiot and he’s going to be put in his place on April 21.”
Personally, I don’t know why Khan would even bother bragging about how he’s going to beat up the journeyman Lo Greco. I mean, the last time I checked, Lo Greco had been beaten 2 out of his last 4 fights since 2015, and 3 out of his last 6. Those are journeyman numbers. Why is Khan acting like he’s about to accomplish something great in fighting a journeyman at this late stage in his career. Khan should be calling out the talented fighters, and telling the boxing fans how he’s going to beat Errol Spence and Keith Thurman instead of talking about a 2nd tier fighter like Lo Greco. I don’t know whose idea it was for Khan to fight Lo Greco, but it seems like a poor fight. It doesn’t matter that Khan is coming off of a 2-year layoff. He should still be fighting better opposition than Lo Greco.
“The fans hate him now and he’s going to be in for a hostile night from the fans in Liverpool,” Khan said about Lo Greco. British fans are the best in the world and he should’ve come here wanting to getting them on his side, but there’s no chance that will happen.”
Nah, I don’t think the boxing fans hate Lo Greco, as Khan says they do. I think the fans are indifferent about him. They just see him as the guy that Khan and his promoter Eddie Hearn signed up a showcase fight. The fans aren’t upset with Lo Greco for him making a remark about Khan three months ago at their kickoff press conference. That’s ancient history. If Khan needs the fans to be upset at Lo Greco so he can try and gain an edge in the fight, then that’s pretty sad, because it shows you how shaky his self-confidence is at this point in his career. Granted, Khan was knocked out badly by Canelo two years ago, but he should have enough self-belief that he can beat a limited fighter like Lo Greco. If not, then it’s time for Khan to retire.
“Welterweight is where I want to be winning world titles at,” Khan said. ”The next two fights are going to be huge marquee names that make me a two-weight world champion. Eddie knows what I want and he’s got the plans down, I know I can win that World title this year,” Khan said.
As far as Khan fighting big marquee names in his next two fights, I kind of doubt it. Khan’s next fight after his April 21 mismatch against Lo Greco is supposed to be another tune-up opponent for this summer. After that, Khan is supposed to be fighting former IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook in December in what a lot of boxing fans see as a cash out fight for both guys. Khan will likely lose to Brook by knockout. If Khan loses to Brook, then he’ll likely be back in the rebuilding faze of his career for the next year or so depending on how badly he’s knocked out. I don’t see Khan going from a knockout loss to Brook straight into a title fight against IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence, WBA/WBC champion Keith ‘One Time’ Thurman or WBA ‘regular’ champion Lucas Matthysse. If Khan doesn’t lose to Brook, then I see Hearn matching him against the winner of the Matthysse vs. Manny Pacquiao fight for the WBA World welterweight title. Matthysse is seen by a lot of boxing fans as a paper champion, and not the upper level WBA champion. I don’t think Khan will beat Matthysse, even though he looked faded in his last fight with Tewa Kiram. Matthysse has too much punching power for the likes of Khan.
What Khan should do is forget about fighting Brook in 2018, and focus instead on facing the winner of the Matthysse vs. Pacquiao fight. That’s a better fight for Khan. If Khan beats the winner of that fight, then he can face Brook in early 2019.