Is Amir Khan Finished As a Fighter?

khan5235743.jpgBy Sean McDaniel: Sometimes all it takes is one punch and a fighter is for all practical purposes washed up for good. In the case of previously unbeaten Amir Khan, I think he may be already at that stage of his career when it’s time to consider retiring for good. What’s sad, at least to me, is that all it took was a hard jab from his powerful Colombian opponent Breidis Prescott (20-0, 18 KOs), who staggered Khan in the opening seconds of the bout. To say that Khan was being more than a little thick headed by mixing it up with Prescott in the opening seconds is being too kind to him.

No one in their right mind would even consider going right after a fighter with as much as Prescott. Regardless of how limited Prescott is as a fighter, his power is very much real indeed, and anyone with two eyes could see that for themselves by taking a glance of his last fight with Cuban amateur star Richard Abril. The knockout loss for Khan was merely a byproduct of him going out there and trying to tangle with someone that he needed to be handling with kid’s gloves. Prescott is a fighter you need to stay away from, not try to engage and slug with. Of course, there’s fighters that probably could do this, like Nate Campbell or Juan Diaz, but then again they’re clearly a class or two above Khan in terms of chin and overall boxing skills.

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Khan Flattened By Prescott in 54 Seconds

khan544675.jpgBy Scott Gilfoid: Making the cardinal mistake of trying to punch with a puncher, formerly unbeaten lightweight Amir Khan (18-0, 14 KOs) was knocked down twice and stopped by Colombian Breidis Prescott (20-0, 18 KOs) in the 1st round on Saturday night. Khan, 21, went right after Prescott, seeming to ignore the latest advice by most boxing experts to stay away from the powerful Prescott, in the 1st round and was almost immediately dropped when the Colombian nailed Khan with a big left hook that stunned Khan, causing both legs to go, and then he was put down with a right and then another left hook to the head.

Khan was on queer street once he hit the canvas. It would have taken a minor miracle for him to have survived the round at this point. He got up, barely, looking as if he had been in a car wreck. Rather than looking at the referee, Khan’s head pivoted around like it was made from rubber and he seemed not to be in the right of mind. After examining Khan for a second, the referee allowed him to continue fighting what seemed like an almost certain knockout fate awaiting him. Prescott, a fighter that few people have heard of before this fight, just had too much power in his left hook for Khan.

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Prescott Destroys Khan

prescott334.jpgBy Michael Lieberman: I don’t mean to gloat or anything but I knew this way going to happen. In fact, I predicted that the Colombian knockout artist Breidis Prescott (20-0, 18 KOs) would knock Amir Khan (18-0, 14 KOs) as soon as the fight was signed months ago. I just didn’t think it would be so gosh darned quick with the fighting being stopped in the 1st round. I guess that goes to show you that if a fighter has a glass chin, you got to protect them fighters like the hard-punching Prescott. Khan, 21, didn’t look good even as he was entering the ring. He looked nervous, as if he had gotten himself into something that he was ill prepared for.

You can say that again. Prescott was in a whole different class than Khan, which became abundantly class in the opening seconds of the bout when Prescott staggered Khan with a simple left jab. After getting hit, Khan’s legs turned rubbery for a second and I thought he was about to do chicken dance.

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Khan-Prescott: Look For An Easy Win For Amir

khan4233.jpgBy Nate Anderson: Unbeaten lightweight contender Amir Khan (18-0, 14 KOs) will be facing yet another badly over-matched opponent on Saturday, this one undefeated Colombian Breidis Prescott (19-0, 17 KOs), whose record is badly over-inflated with wins over mainly lower quality fighters with losing records. However, he does still have the ‘o’ on his record, as well as a high percentage of knockouts, which is probably the only reason he was chosen to face Khan. However, Khan has already faced much better competition than this guy, notably Michael Gomez, Martin Kristjansen and Gairy St. Clair, so you can expect an early night for Khan with an easy knockout win.

Prescott, 25, is a threat to Khan, but only if he can catch him coming inside trying to throw body shots. Minus that, then this should be an easy fight because Prescott has very slow hand speed and he moves around the ring as if his feet were partially mired in mud. Even his power isn’t what it appears. Prescott punches hard, but is more of a clubbing-type puncher than a one-punch knockout artist. Indeed, if not for the mostly lower quality fighters on his record, I imagine that his knockout record would be much lower than it is. In fact, I consider Khan to be the harder puncher of the two by a slight margin.

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Will Amir Khan Ever Be Ready For Top Opposition?

khan678655.jpgBy Aaron Klein: Having seen undefeated lightweight Amir Khan (18-0, 14 KOs) on approximately a dozen occasions, I have serious doubts whether he’ll ever be ready to take on top level opposition such as Nate Campbell, Manny Pacquiao, Humberto Soto, David Diaz, Joel Casamayor or Michael Katsidis. I don’t mean to rain on anyone’s parade, but Khan, from what I’ve seen of him, he doesn’t have the chin to compete in the lightweight division. In fact, I don’t think he has the chin to compete in the sport of boxing at all, period. He’s like the equivalent of Wladimir Klitschko in the lightweight division, except that he doesn’t have a big left hook or fight hand like Klitchko possesses.

Khan does, however, have excellent speed and movement, which is why he’s still undefeated at this early point in his career. His chin, though, is like fine china that you have to handle with the utmost care for fear that you might break it. The problem is, the direction that Khan is heading, namely against better fighters with a heck of a punch, he’s going to be getting hit a lot no matter how fast his own punches or how much he opts to run around the ring.

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Amir Khan – A victim of his own success

khan44646461.jpgBy Abbas Dadhiwala: Having seen the recent announcement that Amir Khan has lined up Breidis Prescott, it makes me think that Khan is a victim of his own success. After disposing of Michael Gomez in five thrilling rounds in June, the Boy from Bolton should have been hoping for better opposition than Prescott. The Colombian does come with an impressive knockout record, however, but with the recent announcement that Khan has signed a multi million pound deal with Sky, Prescott will not have been the caliber of opponent Khan or Sky would have wanted.

John Murray should have been the targeted by Frank Warren and Asif Vali (Khan’s manager) as only then would we be able to assess how good Khan really is. Murray previously defeated Lee Meager in his last fight and looked very good in the process but he hasn’t faced the quality of opponents that Khan has faced, which includes Gomez, Graham Earl and Gairy St Clair. Murray has a decent knockout record and has won all his 25 fights. Against Meager, he looked majestic landed with most of the power punches thrown and I bet Meager was wishing he hadn’t taken the fight as his face was a mess.

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Amir Khan vs. Breidis Prescott: Is This a Step Back For Khan?

khan443276.jpgBy Nate Anderson: In a rather curious move, undefeated top lightweight contender Amir Khan (18-0, 14 KOs) has chosen Colombian knockout artist Breidis Prescott (19-0, 17 KOs) as his next opponent to defend his little known WBO Inter-Continental lightweight title against at the M.E.N. Arena, in Manchester on September 6th. Although Prescott, 23, is undefeated and has fought one more fight than Khan, he’s nowhere near the same class as Khan and is a huge step back from whom Khan has been facing previously to this point in his early boxing career.

It’s not surprising, I suppose, especially after the way Khan, 21, performed in his last fight with Michael Gomez, who knocked him down in the 3rd round of their June 21st bout. Although Khan would get up off the deck and eventually stop Gomez in the 5th round, Khan didn’t look good, seeming worried when being pressured by Gomez. Indeed, Khan looks visibly stressed when being pressured, reminding me a lot of how Wladimir Klitschko sometimes goes to pieces mentally when having an opponent apply a lot of pressure against him. If this was the only circumstance when Khan looked observably stressed out when being attacked hard, I wouldn’t mind so much, but this is just another example of Khan looking bad when put under the gun by an opponent. What was interesting was how he reacted to the pressure, which showed itself in him running a lot, and shoving Gomez hard quite frequently.

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Khan Stops Gomez, Gets Knocked Down In The Process

khan463322.jpgBy Chris Williams: Undefeated lightweight contender Amir Khan proved one thing tonight, he proved that he’s not ready to take on either WBO lightweight champion Nate Campbell or the winner of Manny Pacquiao vs. David Diaz WBC title fight slated for next week. Khan 18-0, 14 KOs), looking almost invincible, dropped Gomez in the 1st round with a left hand to the head. However, Gomez took all Khan’s shots and began firing back with his own power shots and shortly thereafter in the 3rd round he knocked Khan down with a clubbing left hand to the head.

Khan got up off the canvas and took a lot more punishment in the round before coming on strong at the end. After getting hurt by a powerful left hand to the midsection, Khan came back in the 5th round and dropped Gomez with a hard left to the body. Later in the round, Khan staggered Gomez with a big right hand, which drove him backwards to the ropes, where Khan finished him off with a flurry of shots to the head causing referee John Keane to step in and stop the fight at 2:29 of the 5th round.

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Khan vs. Gomez On Saturday Night

khan4464646.jpgBy Tony Krebs: Undefeated lightweight contender Amir Khan (17-0, 13 KOs) defends his Commonwealth (British Empire) lightweight title on Saturday night against Michael Gomez (35-8, 24 KOs) in a scheduled 12-round bout at the National Indoor Arena, in Birmingham, West Midlands. Khan, 21, is hoping to get by Gomez, who comes into the fight clearly way over-matched, and then possibly line up a fight with the winner of Manny Pacquiao vs. David Diaz for the WBC lightweight title next week. Khan is also interested in a possible – though much less so – fight with Nate Campbell for the WBO lightweight title.

However, first things first, Khan must defeat Gomez, a former WBU super featherweight and BBBofC British super featherweight champion, tomorrow night. Despite his status of a former champion, not many boxing experts give Gomez much of a chance against Khan tomorrow night, mainly because Gomez’s prime – 6 to 8 years ago – appears in the rear view mirror and he’s lost three out of his last six recent fights, with all three coming by knockout.

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Boxing News: Solis-Botha, Aaron Williams, Khan-Gomez

Olympic gold medallist Odlanier Solis and former world heavyweight champion Francois Botha were meant to meet in the ring in December 2007 but the “White Buffalo” drew in his horns on very short notice. Now everything is set and the contracts are signed for the fight to take place on May 30th in Bilbao, Spain..

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