By Charles Brun: Boxing great Roy Jones Jr. thinks Amir Khan quit last Saturday night after he was hurt by a low blow from WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford at Madison Square Garden in New York. Jones says he wants to see Khan (33-5, 20 KOs) apologize to the public for him not continuing after he was hurt by the low blow.
Asking Khan to apologize for being hurt from a low blow is a little hard to understand. One can argue that Khan isn’t the one that should apologize. Some boxing fans think Crawford is the one that should be doing the apologizing, because he’s the one that fouled Khan by hitting him with a low blow. If a fighter is fouled and too hurt to continue, how do you ask them to apologize? Jones doesn’t know how hurt Khan was. How could he? Should Khan be the one that is asking the boxing public for forgiveness because he was hit low by Crawford and hurt? It makes no sense. Jones has it the wrong way around.
Jones may not realize this but it was Khan’s trainer Virgil Hunter was the one that chose to stop the fight in the sixth round after the low blow incident occurred.
“Amir Khan quit,” Jones said to TMZ. “When I go in the ring. Carry me out. I don’t wanna go out on my feet if I lost. Carry me out. I rather give it all, or get it all taken away from me. Amir, I love you as a fighter. I respect you since you were an amateur fighter. You went up 2 weight classes, took on Canelo. You did a lot of beautiful things to show that you have courage. This time you were in a no-win situation, and you refused to continue. You stopped at a time we know you could’ve given more. You didn’t give it to us, the fans, your all. You have to apologize. We respect that. Be a man. Be honest for what you did, and move forward.”
The punch that Crawford hit Khan with low looked like it was thrown with maximum power. The way that Khan was doubled over when he was talking to his trainer Hunter afterwards, he looked like he was still hurt from the shot. Hunter did what he thought was the right thing to do when he saw how hurt Khan was. That’s what trainers are there for – to protect their fighters if they’re hurt.
It’s up to Crawford and his Top Rank promoter Bob Arum whether they want to give Khan a rematch. Since the results of the fight was obviously due to Crawford’s low blow, a rematch is the only thing that make sense. The way things are now, it’s a fight that are to view an official one due to it ending on an injury that resulted from a foul. Although the fight is officially a victory for Crawford, it’s difficult to view it as such due a foul causing it. If Crawford nailed Khan to the back of the head with a rabbit punch, how would it look if Khan was to hurt to continue after five minutes? Should Crawford be given the victory when it was a foul that led to the injury? These are questions that boxing needs to address. When have a fighter injured from a foul, it’s a gray area and it’s difficult to see it as a win given the circumstances.You can argue that the fight could have been a called a no contest or perhaps have it go to the scorecards. That would make more sense than Crawford being given a knockout win over a fighter that was hit low. The official result of the fight last Saturday was Crawford winning by a sixth round TKO over Khan. That’s an odd way of winning a fight. It looked bad, and the boxing fans are still unhappy the way it ended, and they’re not all blaming it on Khan. Many of the fans saw the foul from Crawford, and they’re not happy with him winning like that.
