What makes Manny Pacquiao such a great boxer? Well apart from the obvious speed, power and strength, Amir Khan offered me an interesting point of view recently.
It was the morning of Paquiao’s win over Miguel Cotto when I spoke to Khan. The previous night, another Filipino boxer with connections to the Wild Card gym, Z Gorres, had collapsed after winning a bout at the Mandalay Bay – the very hotel we were talking in. Would news of the injury affect Pacquiao at all, I wondered?
“Not at all,” Khan said. “Manny’s an island.”
And that is what makes a great boxer great. The ability to focus solely on the task at hand and shut out all distractions. And it is an ability that Khan showed as well in his brief world-title defence against Dmitriy Salita in Newcastle this month.
Two days before the bout, Khan spoke to a group of national journalists and raised the subject of race, more specifically questioning whether much of the stick he had received since his knockout loss to Breidis Prescott was racially-motivated. It’s a tricky subject, but Khan has never shied away from such things. It also created some quite uncomfortable headlines.
So much so that the next day, the BBC put Shah Khan, Amir’s dad, and Frank Warren, his promoter, on air to give their opinions. It is unlikely that Khan would have been completely insulated from the controversy. So, I wondered, how would it affect him?
By the way he took the bout by the scruff of the neck, it did not sit on his mind at all. Khan, a boxer who too often has been affected by the crowd, who has listened too much to the criticism, been a bit too sensitive, seems to be developing Manny’s island mentality.
Khan will always have his knockers, people will always question his chin and the hype that surrounds him. The important thing is that Khan is developing tunnel vision.
On another subject, Khan and Warren are due to have talks this week to look at options for Khan’s next defence. I have been told, despite reports elsewhere, that no offer has been made to Timothy Bradley, the WBO champion from the United States. Bradley, for one, isn’t a southpaw, which, as Freddie Roach wants Khan to spar Pacquiao in this training camp, seems to be one of the conditions.
Gorres, by the way, continues to make slow progress from his injuries in Las Vegas and is presently paralysed on his left side. For an excellent article by Case Keefer from Saturday’s Las Vegas Sun, giving the latest update and details of how to make a contribution to the care of the fallen boxer, click here.
