{"id":1279,"date":"2010-02-16T00:01:08","date_gmt":"2010-02-16T05:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ringsidereport.com\/?p=1279"},"modified":"2010-02-16T00:01:08","modified_gmt":"2010-02-16T05:01:08","slug":"amir-khan-world-beater","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=1279","title":{"rendered":"Amir Khan: World Beater?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>By Geoff \u201cThe Professor\u201d Poundes<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

When Britain\u2019s Amir Khan, 22-1, 16 KO\u2019s, blew away in less than a round the unbeaten Dmitriy Salita just before Christmas, there was a certain amount of ooh-ing and coo-ing from both sides of the Atlantic at the young man\u2019s future prospects.<\/span><\/p>\n

At just twenty-two years of age Khan is the WBA Light Welterweight Champion, and is now firmly ensconced in the thriving surroundings of Freddie Roach\u2019s Wild Card gym in Los Angeles. He has Marco Antonio Barrera\u2019s scalp on his resume, and a string of top contenders lining up to knock him off his perch.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet just over a year ago, Khan\u2019s career appeared to be in tatters after he was blasted out in less than a minute by puncher Breidis Prescott. He swore after the fight that the defeat was attributable to a gung-ho attitude in the ring, whilst on-lookers shook their head and muttered that he was fragile around the whiskers and would be knocked out again should he share a ring with anyone possessing anything more than a feather-duster punch.<\/span><\/p>\n

Even before the Prescott debacle, Khan\u2019s relationship with the British public was somewhat love\/hate. Perceived by many to be a fighter who had been gifted a route to the top by virtue of an Olympic silver medal and a canny promoter in Frank Warren, Khan\u2019s often superlative ring performances seemed to be over-shadowed by a stubborn reluctance on the part of the fight-going public to give him his due. Before the Salita fight Khan made the mistake of attributing that reluctance to the color of his skin, when in truth it\u2019s simply that the British expect our sportspeople to come up the hard way, perform creditably, and lose graciously.<\/span><\/p>\n

So it has been a minor miracle that Frank Warren has managed to re-draw Khan\u2019s battle lines and maneuver him into his current position. A couple of weeks ago Warren was rewarded by being ditched in favor of Oscar\u2019s Golden Boy outfit, ostensibly so that Khan can take advantage of the lucrative US market, but also, one suspects, in view of the fact that Ricky Hatton has announced his return to the ring, and there are megabucks in the offing for Khan and Hatton to get together later in the year. Warren\u2019s fractious relationship with Hatton would have precluded that fight from happening.<\/span><\/p>\n

Doubtless when the time is right Warren will shout loud and long about the sterling job he\u2019s done for Khan, before and after the youngster unraveled under Prescott\u2019s powerful assault, but for the moment he\u2019s keeping his counsel. Meanwhile Khan\u2019s new representatives at Golden Boy cast about for an opponent who will excite his new American audience, whilst keeping his title intact.<\/span><\/p>\n

Their first step has been to swerve the attentions of Khan\u2019s mandatory challenger, the relatively little-known but heavy punching Argentinian Marcos Maidana. Maidana\u2019s opposition has been less than stellar, but he has carved out a 27-1 record, which will frighten no-one (Salita was 30-0 when Khan destroyed him) until one notes that he\u2019s stopped 26 foes. Marry that to Khan\u2019s questionable chin and it\u2019s less surprising that Golden Boy is looking to bypass the fight. They can get away with doing so on commercial grounds, in that there are bigger names (and lighter punchers) lining up to take on their man.<\/span><\/p>\n

One of those is Paulie Malignaggi, the always vocal and recently rejuvenated New Yorker, who has had much to say about Khan avoiding a fight with him. In fact, Malignaggi, 27-3, 5 KO\u2019s, would fit the bill as a fighter with a name, an attitude, and some box office appeal, together with a feather-duster punch. He\u2019s coming off an impressive points victory over Juan Diaz, and has achieved a measure of redemption in the game after being out-classed and ridiculed by Ricky Hatton. However, it seems that Khan has passed on the Malignaggi option also.<\/span><\/p>\n

At one point there was talk of Khan fighting WBO champion Timothy Bradley, 25-0, 11 KO\u2019s, but he\u2019s far too good a fighter, and too poor a publicist, for Khan to share a ring with. Nate Campbell was also mentioned, but at 37 he\u2019s almost certainly on the slide and wouldn\u2019t excite the fans.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course the fight that would really make us all sit up is Khan versus Edwin Valero, who declared after this weekend\u2019s mauling of Antonio DeMarco that he wants to campaign at 140 for a while. Valero is looking for meaningful fights that will see him along the path to a showdown with Manny Pacquiao, and Khan would fit that bill precisely. Of course the Venezuelan has the most fearsome record in the game, 27-0, 27 KO\u2019s, and is beginning to show that he\u2019s just as powerful in world class as he was as a novice, when he chalked up 18 first round stoppages in his opening 18 fights. It\u2019s fair to say, therefore, that Amir Khan won\u2019t want any part of him.<\/span><\/p>\n

Which brings us to Amir\u2019s most likely next opponent, Juan Manuel Marquez. <\/span><\/p>\n

Much touted as Ricky Hatton\u2019s first comeback fight, Marquez, 50-5, 37 KO\u2019s, is valuable currency having been readily outpointed by Floyd Junior in his last outing, but remaining the last warrior to give Manny Pacquiao anything like a decent fight. That mix of vulnerability and class puts him at the head of the wanted list. Khan\u2019s people will see similarities between a Marquez-Khan fight and Khan\u2019s win over Marco Antonio Barrera, and will fancy the Englishman to turn back a second iconic Mexican. He\u2019s also small at the weight, and won\u2019t be expected to wield the kind of one-punch power that could unseat Khan.<\/span><\/p>\n

Whatever the outcome, there will come a point in Khan\u2019s American adventure when he will have to stand before the Bradley\u2019s, Maidana\u2019s and Valero\u2019s of this world. When he does, it will be because Golden Boy has faith not in Amir, but in Freddie Roach to keep Khan slick and fast enough to get his fragile chin out of harm\u2019s way, whilst landing his own blurring arsenal of punches.<\/span><\/p>\n

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By Geoff \u201cThe Professor\u201d Poundes When Britain\u2019s Amir Khan, 22-1, 16 KO\u2019s, blew away in less than a round the unbeaten Dmitriy Salita just before Christmas, there was a certain amount of ooh-ing and coo-ing from both sides of the Atlantic at the young man\u2019s future prospects. At just twenty-two years of age Khan is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[52,234,280,477],"class_list":["post-1279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-boxing-news","tag-amir-kahn","tag-england","tag-freddie-roach","tag-manny-pacquiao"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1279\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}