By Patrick McHugh: Amir Khan’s trainer Virgil Hunter found himself in a weird situation last night in challenging WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (47-1-1, 33 KOs) to stop hiding from his mandatory challenger Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (35-0, 32 KOs) and take the dangerous fight.
It was strange because Hunter found himself being opposed by HBO commentator Max Kellerman, who seemed to come to the defense of Canelo when Hunter told Canelo to stop hiding from GGG and take the fight.
By Jeff Aranow: Amir Khan has nothing to be ashamed of tonight despite him losing to WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez by a 6th round knockout. Khan was knocked out badly in the 6th when Canelo finally was able to catch him with a big right hand to the head.
The fight was stopped officially at 2:37 of the 6th round by referee Kenny Bayless. Until that knockout, Canelo has been whiffing on his shots, and looking like the same fighter that had lost to Floyd Mayweather Jr. and had struggled to beat Erislandy Lara.
By Dan Ambrose: WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez’s brutal 6th round knockout win over Amir Khan (31-4, 19 KOs) tonight appears to have given Canelo and his promoter Oscar De La Hoya a surge of confidence all of a sudden, because both of them were showing signs of courage after the fight tonight.
Canelo, 25, invited Golovkin to enter the ring after he had dispatched Khan with a right hand because he says he was ready to fight Golovkin too. De La Hoya had a personal message to Golovkin, saying that he should make sure he answers his phone on Sunday. It’s surprising what a knockout over a welterweight will do to one’s self confidence.
By Jim Dower: After struggling through the first four rounds, WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (47-1, 33 KOs) knocked out welterweight Amir “King” Khan (31-4, 19 Kos) with a big right hand to the head on Saturday night to get the stoppage at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
By Dan Ambrose: IBF/IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez says he saw yesterday’s weigh-in for the Saul “Canelo” Alvarez vs. Amir Khan fight, and he thinks Canelo looked really thin at the 155lb catch-weight that Team Canelo insisted on for the fight. Sanchez thinks Canelo is literally killing himself to make 155lbs so that he can avoid fighting Golovkin, because he has no intention of draining down to fight the Mexican fighter at a catch-weight later this year.
If the Golovkin-Canelo fight is going to take place in 2016, then it’s going to have to be at a full weight for the middleweight division at 160lbs. If Canelo doesn’t want to do that, then he’ll need to give up his WBC title. That seems to be what Sanchez is expecting him to do. Golovkin says Canelo is “terrible” with his insistence on fighting at 155, and he thinks he doesn’t respect the sport.
By Brendan Taylor: Amir Khan (31-3, 19 KO’s) comes into tonight’s bout with Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (46-1-1, 32 KO’s) as a heavy underdog and for good reason. The former Olympic silver medalist has shown lack of a chin in the past dating back to his knockout losses to Danny Garcia and Breidis Prescott. Why would any rational human being expect Khan to last 12 rounds with Canelo, is the question we should ask ourselves.
Hall of Fame trainer Naazim Richardson believes Amir Khan just going the distance with the hard hitting Mexican is a victory in itself. “If Amir Khan goes 12 rounds it’s a form of a victory, his career takes a step up if he goes the distance” is what Richardson told Brendan Taylor of Tru School Sports.
(Photo Credit: Tom Hogan – Hogan Photos/Golden Boy Promotions) By Patrick McHugh: WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez will be receiving a base purse of $3.5 million for his fight on Saturday night against former light welterweight champion Amir Khan at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Canelo will be getting a lot more than $3.5M the PPV money and other promotional money, according to ESPN.
Canelo’s promoter Oscar De La Hoya expects the fight to bring in 2 million buys on HBO. Even if it does half of that, Canelo will wind up making a lot of money. Khan will be getting $2 million. He’s expected to make $13 million. Canelo will likely be getting well above what Khan brings home for this fight given that he’s the A-side for this fight.
(Photo credit: Juan Carlos Manzano) By Dan Ambrrose: Amir Khan is taking a difficult and potentially dangerous fight against a bigger fighter in Saul “Canelo” Alvarez on Saturday night at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. This is a fight that Khan could get hurt by the heavier and stronger Canelo if he gets caught with one of his big power shots. Khan’s trainer Virgil Hunter acknowledges that Khan could lose this fight, but he still respects him for daring to be great by taking a risky fight that could lead to him getting knocked out by Golden Boy Promotions’ No.1 fighter.
However, Hunter wonders whether Canelo will do the same thing by taking a risky fight against Gennady “GGG” Golovkin is victorious on Saturday night. To be sure, Canelo has had a couple of difficult fights in his career against Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Miguel Cotto.
By Chris Williams: Amir Khan’s trainer Virgil Hunter says Khan could be the one that scores the knockout in this Saturday’s fight, not WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (46-1-1, 32 KOs), who many boxing fans have as the favorite to win this fight.
Hunter points out that Canelo isn’t the knockout artist that some people says he is. He’s only stopped one junior middleweight and that was the weight drained Alfredo Angulo, who Hunter trained for that fight in 2014. Canelo’s recent knockout over a ring rusty and weight drained James Kirkland was the same situation with Canelo getting a knockout over a guy that had lost a great deal of weight and who hadn’t fought in a long time.
By Bob Smith: On the one hand, a boxing fan may have dreams for a competitive middleweight title fight between two equally matched competitors at or near their prime; one can wish and pine and develop fantasies and projections to try to bridge the gap. However, the unfortunate fact is that Saturday’s fight between WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Amir Khan is a very grave mismatch.
It makes sense from a business and ego point of view for Khan. He will make $13 million and finally get to fight an A class fighter while he is still in his boxing prime – the years of agonizing waiting and negotiations for either Manny Pacquaio or Floyd Mayweather clearly have taken their toll in his thought process. He is also correct that he is the better boxer pound for pound than Canelo, and also that Canelo is not as good a boxer as Pacquaio or Mayweather.