Canelo-Khan = Assault in the Ring

By alan garcia - 05/11/2016 - Comments

1-alvarez-canelo-khan (11)By Alan Garcia: On May the seventh HBO blatantly displayed assault and battery on national television. When did a live massacre turn into entertainment? Has society still not evolved since the time of the gladiators? Clearly not when they still allow for such brutality to be displayed on a pay-per-view event. I didn’t pay to see a morbid event like most casual viewers that consider this “entertainment,” I paid to see Amir “KING” Khan. A man with balls of steel like his, going into the pits of hell and against all odds, against oblivion, deserves my support and respect.

Life is already tough as it is with full of ups and downs. My love for boxing is ironically a symbol of my compassion for humanity and for the sacrifices of these men that go unnoticed. The sport of boxing is a good if not the best physical example to a metaphor of life.

Only a few really take the time to analyze that these men are putting their lives on the line for our entertainment. Literally! To quote Jim Lampley “life is in some way a fight.” The late trainer Emanuel Stewart would’ve been so upset and would’ve been the first to comment on this last night if he were still alive.

Life is full of unfair unjustness. That’s the real issue here. It has nothing but at the same time everything to do with last night’s fight. It’s unfair to be spoon fed from a golden plater when you haven’t earned that spot. It might boil down to luck in the eyes of many, but it is unfair that those who earn their way to the top the hard way, the right way, are treated the way they are.

Khan has produced nothing but great entertaining fights. Khan carries the heart of a colossal tyrant in that tiny frame of his. All that Amir has been wanting to proof his whole career is why he is the best, and why he deserves to be at the top pound-for-pound list. It’s unfair to discard a true fighter of his caliber aside for someone who willingly knew had a two different weight class pound advantage and won’t even move up FIVE pounds to fight in his natural weight class.

Khan stepped into the ring giving his best performance, desperately earning a name for himself, proving to the boxing public who Amir “King” Khan is and why he’s earned his way there. The whole time that he wasn’t granted the opportunity to compete at top level before was finally granted.

This fight would’ve been a great display of speed against strength, without a doubt. The clash of styles these two different men possess will always call for an interesting fight. But when there’s a handicap weight advantage to the power puncher, then it’s when all chance of hope and skill gets thrown out of the equation. It boils down to just a matter of moments or what round, will the lights-out punch land. Surprisingly enough that lights-out punch was landed in the sixth round of a scheduled 12 round fight. It was as if a courageous rodent stood up to a poisonous snake in a battle for its life only to be extinguished in a flash by its awaiting brutally poisonous bite.

I had given Khan the chance of two rounds before getting knocked out before going into this fight. Anything else was already a win for him and a surprise to me. It’s sad that such a good fighter like Khan couldn’t be “marketable” enough for him to be a top selling attraction or at the very least granted a fair fight to prove himself. Not a fight in which he didn’t stand a chance. Fortunately for Khan, his sacrifice last night shined a bleak ray of hope on the corruption of this sport.

Let’s take a look at the big picture of this aftermath. Khan proved a huge point last night. He proved that all title fights should be contested in their designated weight classes to avoid future injuries or putting the lives of fighters at a higher risk than they already are going into combat. His performance against Saul Canelo Alvarez should’ve definitely opened the eyes of passionate fans and therefore put in demand for fights to be fought in their corresponding weight class. Khan set the bar! The boxing council should discard this catchweight crap that allows for handicaps and therefore fight in their mandatory weight for the designated belts. If a fighter can’t make weight he shouldn’t be allowed to fight for the belts that belong to that weight. If these so called champions have to defend their titles, let it be in their corresponding weight class.

The importance of contesting in the same weight class is a huge issue. When Canelo hit Khan on the body he left the mark of his punches on him. Khan’s body literally became bruised and swollen by Canelo’s punches right away. It became apparent almost immediately and left proof when Khan was laid out cold on the canvas—obvious evidence of a huge weight difference, it was almost equivalent to an overgrown man hitting a kid.

The fact that casual boxing fans and relevant boxers alike say that Khan has a glass chin and has underrated boxing skill is far from being true. Khan was able to go the distance against Marcos Maidana, taking huge shots from him without touching the canvas. Khan’s boxing skills were able to drop a prime Maidana in the first round of their fight. Khan was then able to take Maidana’s punches for 12 rounds. Adrien Broner for example got hit by Maidana and went down in the second round. In fact, Khan’s boxing ability exposed Canelo for the stationary flat footed fighter he is. Like Erislandy Lara and Floyd Mayweather, Khan proved that Canelo can’t handle boxers. Now, the fact that Khan got knocked out, was clearly not because he has a weak chin but because of the 30-pound weight disadvantage he had. It has nothing to do with Khan’s ability to take a big punch, it’s taking a punch from a big guy that’s the issue.

When the own network protects their fighters in such a way (like Canelo for example), it makes it seem like they think their boxing public doesn’t know anything about the sport and therefore have a dumb audience to think they can get away with blatant mismatches like these. That’s why there are different weight classes in the first place. Why are they asking the middle-weight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin to go down in weight to 155lb, to fight for Canelo’s 160 pound WBC belt? It should be the other way around!

Canelo showed no respect to Khan to the sport, or to himself. People were quick to notice how Canelo automatically showed immediate concern for his fallen comrade taking a knee next to him when Khan was knocked-out cold on the canvas. That wasn’t a display of respect or being humble. Canelo did that because he knew from the second he signed the contract, he was capable of doing such damage. If he really respected Khan, he would’ve never agreed to fight him. Canelo knows he doesn’t have the skills to fight in his actual weight class. He arguably lost to Lara by points, bought Alfredo Angulo’s weight for him to come in underweight, targeting an actual glass chin James Kirkland, and having an open score card system in his favor against Austin Trout. These actual middleweight fighters show in one form or another Canelo struggles in his weight.

When Canelo was asked about a fight with GGG in the near future he dodge the question once again. He went on to saying that he’ll fight him at the right weight which was soon followed by saying, “the belts here are put aside, we fight for honor and glory.” If that was the case and Canelo really believed that, then why didn’t he fight Miguel Angel Cotto for honor and glory? It seems like Canelo makes the same repeated excuse when he knows there’s a possibility of losing a fight. Like he repeated in full verbatim before fighting Lara in their press conference.

In conclusion, last Saturday night’s massacre should encourage boxing fans to speak up and call for fair fights. There’s too much blatant injustice and corruption in the sport that makes for the entertainment of the sport, nothing but a dirty business. Fights should be fought the day of the weigh-in, like in the old days. No more of these joke catch-weight fights. There should be eight divisions, not 17. Boxing will always have brave and courageous fighters along with shameless coward fighters. Let’s stop taking advantage of the willing fighters who are given mega million fight opportunities under crucial life threatening conditions and ultimatums in order to prove themselves. My heart goes out to Khan and any other fighters willing to take risks like the one Khan took to show who they really are. These are the real type of fighters boxing needs to protect and promote. It was an honor to pay to watch Amir “King” Khan fight and a bigger privilege to be his fan.