RingSide Report

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The Curious Case of Amir Khan

By Tyler “The Miracle Man” White

At just the age of 17, Amir Khan won the silver medal at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens and became Britain’s youngest boxing Olympic medalist. The British media made a point of this and when Khan turned Professional a year later in 2005, he was given a lot of support and attention.

However, it would seem that this attention and desire for it has ultimately plagued Khan’s career in a sense, as he’s been involved in more reality TV appearances than fights over the past two years…

An exciting fighter with dazzling hand speed and world class skills, Amir ‘King’ Khan, has always been great to watch and to his credit is a former World Champion; so you cannot take that away from him, but his career hasn’t really lived up to its fullest potential which is a shame for someone who was tipped for greatness in the sport.

After a decent start to his professional career, Khan split with his trainer Oliver Harrison, apparently due to the fact that Harrison believed that Khan’s public appearances were interfering with his fight preparation.

If this is the case then it would seem that Oliver Harrison made a very good point, because in his second fight after the split, Khan was knocked out in devastating fashion by Breidis Prescott within 55 seconds of the first round… A lesson learnt the hard way perhaps?

Whatever the reasons behind Khan’s shocking defeat to Prescott were, he was soon back in the mix and within two years he’d picked up the WBA Super Lightweight World Title, with a controversial win over Marco Antonio Barrera along the way, before making successful title defences against the likes of Paul Malignaggi, Marcos Maidana and Zab Judah.

Throughout these fights Khan had shown a mixture of heart, skill, power, speed and vulnerability, all of which are traits that make a fighter very exciting to watch, but they’re also traits that mean things can turn on their heads in an instant…

In 2012, Khan’s vulnerability was exposed, as he was knocked down on three occasions by Danny “Swift” Garcia, who with a bit of hunters patience, managed to time his left hook counter perfectly, putting Khan flat on his back and thus spelling out the beginning of the end for Amir Khan in that contest.

After this devastating loss, Khan began to build himself up again and went on to defeat Luis Collazo, Devon Alexander and Chris Algieri – 3 quality fighters who were all former World Champions themselves. Victories over these 3 fighters just goes to show the level at which Amir Khan is capable of boxing at when he’s focused and disciplined in sticking to his game plan!

Almost a year after his victory over Algieri, Khan decided to take a step up in weight and face off against one of the top Pound-for-Pound fighters in Canelo Alvarez. Khan was considered by many to have been dominating the fight and the naturally bigger man with his speed advantage and effective lateral movement, but in the 6th round he was set-up and knocked out in spectacular fashion by a precise and patient Alvarez.

Almost 2 years on from that devastating knockout defeat at the hands of Canelo Alvarez, Amir Khan is scheduled to be back boxing in England at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, against Canadian Super Welterweight Phil Lo Greco, who has already successfully gotten underneath Khan’s skin by bringing up issues in AK’s personal life, which caused a reaction from the 2004 Olympic medalist.

Unfortunately for Amir Khan, this will probably remain a common insult for him as his career has been stained by all of these personal issues outside the ring, of which include: family fall outs, money issues, affairs, a careless driving conviction, relationship troubles and even one very confusing bit of miscommunication with Heavyweight Champion Anthony Joshua, accusing him of flirting/sleeping with his wife.

As well as having all of these personal issues intensified under the media spotlight, it would seem that Khan has probably made things worse for himself by going on shows such as “I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here”…

Alongside Khan’s TV appearances and front page news stories, the British-Pakistani fighter spent a long period of time calling out Floyd Mayweather, JR. and trying to get that big money fight that every professional fighter dreams of, however, Mayweather, JR. chose to fight Khan’s former foe Marcos Maidana instead and all that time Khan spent focused on Mayweather, JR., ended up being for nothing.

Khan is a World Class operator and has achieved some tremendous things in his career, fighting great fighters along the way, but due to his weaker chin and his desire to fight in an exciting manner, it’s probably been harder for him to get those really meaningful fights because his team knows that if he cannot fight with discipline, then he is only one punch away from getting stopped.

I truly hope that Khan can step back through those ropes on April 21st and put on a dominant display against Phil Le Greco, perhaps setting up one last push to become a world champion again and to reach the heights that he will have always wanted to have reached.

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