By Charles Brun: John Ryder rates Amir Khan as one of the best six-round fighters in the sport, but he’s predicting a victory for Kell Brook this Saturday night in their 149-lb catchweight fight at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England.
Three of Khan’s five career defeats have come from the sixth on, and he’s hard to beat early on for anyone.
Ryder notes that Khan (34-5, 21 KOs) was beating Canelo Alvarez early in their fight in 2016 before getting knocked cold from a right hand in the sixth.
If Saturday’s fight were six rounds only, the 35-year-old Khan would have a heck of a chance of beating Brook, who is well past his prime at the stage of his 18-year career.
Khan-Brook could come down to which of the two 35-year-olds are more shot than the other.
Goodnews knows Brook hasn’t performed well in years since the successive thrashings he took at the hands of Gennadiy Golovkin and Errol Spence Jr. in 2016 and 2017.
The power is still there for Brook, obviously, but his speed, timing, and, more importantly, his punch resistance have disappeared since.
Ryder rates Khan as a six-round fighter
“It’s a tough one. I mean, Amir Khan is one of the best six-round fighters in the world,” said John Ryder to Fighthype. “He’d beat anyone in six rounds. He was beating Canelo Alvarez.
“If he lets his attention slip and he gets caught, it’s lights out,” Ryder continued. “Listen, one thing Kell has got is a dig, so it comes down to who has the better tactics on the night.
“Amir has still got his hand speed, his tenacity, his foot speed. We just don’t know. We’re in for a treat, but if I have to stick my neck out, I’d have to go for Kell,” said Ryder.
It’s fair to say that if Khan doesn’t KO Brook within six rounds on Saturday night, he’s going to get worn down and stopped by him in the second half of the fight.
If Brook’s punch resistance is at the level we saw in his last fight against Terence Crawford; he’s not going to last long against Khan. I mean, the power shot that Crawford hurt Brook with in the fourth is well within Khan’s ability to throw.
What we don’t know is how much does Khan has left? He hasn’t fought in three years since beating little super featherweight Billy Dibb in 2019, and he hasn’t fought a serious opponent since losing to Crawford in April of that year.
Before Khan went on his current three-year break from boxing, he’d only fought two quality fighters in the past seven years of his career in Crawford and Canelo Alvarez and was stopped by both.
For all intents and purposes, Khan’s career ended as a serious fighter after his consecutive losses to Lamont Peterson and Danny Garcia in 2011 and 2012.
Really, after those defeats, Khan seemed to back away from fighting quality opposition entirely, focusing on taking sure-thing tune-up fights from 2012 to 2016.
When Khan stepped it up against a world-class opponent in 2016, it was for a payday fight against Canelo, a cash-out type of situation.
Salita predicts Khan will be too much for Brook
“I do think Amir Khan has more left; I think his speed is phenomenal as I’ve experienced, and I think when the fight gets tough, and the pace gets going at a higher level, I don’t think Brook will be able to keep up with the pace,” said Salita to Sky Sports.
“I think his body isn’t able to take that kind of punishment that world-class fights entail. I think Amir has more left at this point; that’s my opinion.”
