Haroon Khan took his first serious step in a boxing ring in front of a world audience today. He was a winner by some distance, out-thumping Tanzanian Sunday Elias into the middle of next week with agression and a serious of wild right hands, for the Pakistan cause, at the Commonwealth Games.
Without wishing to dampen Haroon?s early success in the 52kg class, it was wild, it was erratic, and he left himself open to counters throughout the 9 minutes. Elias was of a poor standard.
Comparison with Amir Khan, aged 17, at the Athens Olympic Games, where he won a silver medal, beggars belief. Yes, the brothers look similar, but they box in completely different styles.
Moreover, Haroon, already 19, is smaller, lighter and much, much more raw in application than the sleek gifts Amir displayed in front of the Greeks in Athens. They are also 8 kilos apart in amateur weight classes.
It took one of the finest amateurs in the world in Cuban Mario Kindelan, a mature fighter, and incumbent Olympic Games gold medallist, to outthink and outmanoeuvre Amir. Lesson learnt, Khan beat him a few months later in his last amateur fight, before he turned pro under Frank Warren. And Kindelan looked jaded on that night in Bolton.
If you were being unkind about Haroon, who is, from personal experience, a lovely kid, you might say he is a ?banger?. Another way of putting it, is that he has a style much more suited to the professional sport, rather than the amateur game. Amir was a much more accomplished technical boxer at 17. No q
