Casual Talk from Hollywood, California – Of course, unlike his boxing idol and sparring partner pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao who frequently listens to homilies, Amir Khan may not need coaching on what to say before the camera, journalists and boxing fans. Khan does not need a Catholic priest either to teach him honesty and true character of a real champion. Nor does he need a cleric from his own faith to admit that he was truly hurt by Marcos Maidana in round ten through twelve.
“Khan is a nice kid and I am proud of him. He is my countryman. But, he needs less than just pride to rise above with sportsmanship,” said Tariq Amir, a Khan’s fan who watched the fight live by ringside. “He said he was not hurt by Maidana in round ten. He was hurt. I thought he almost lost the fight.”
Conversely, “I know I had rough moments in the last three rounds, but Maidana really never hurt me in that fight,” said Khan who retains his WBA World light welterweight title last Saturday night at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Maidana, on the other hand, said: “Khan is a great fighter and he gave me a good fight. He hurt me in the first round and I thought I could not make it through.”
Unlike Maidana as well who generously gave praises to Khan after their arduous twelve round of boxing, Khan remains defiant to confess that he was hurt and on the verge of losing.
And as we watched him closely all throughout the fight, Khan may have wished and been so scared to end the fight not to his favor, if only to survive. True, he did demonstrated a great will-power against odds. And, no doubt, he did very well and took the helm out of Maidana’s non-surrendering heart until round twelve.
But, despite Khan winning the score cards from round one through round nine, if such tempo of the match and tenor of the board of boxing judges were that of Oscar de la Hoya vs. Tito Trinidad’s night,
Maidana could
have won the match, if not wound up better to a draw. Oh, yeah, Oscar de la Hoya saw himself in Khan when he fought against Tito Trinidad. In that fight Trinidad defeated De la Hoya by mounting an attack in the late rounds, while De La Hoya ran around the ring. Trinidad started landing some of powerful right hands which he was missing in the early rounds and relentlessly continued chasing De La Hoya around the ring while De La Hoya basically took the 10th, 11th and 12th round off. Trinidad won by majority decision. At the ring side Khan-Maidana fight, De la Hoya became less certain and very worried for Khan. He thought Khan was losing the fight.
“It was a very difficult fight for Khan and I think he was hurt in the last three rounds,” said De la Hoya. “But, Khan is a great fighter.”
Meanwhile, forget about the favor that Khan had on such fight night, one thing that draw a better strike than just intrigue to the inmost subconsciousness of the observer are the everlasting values that a fighter could shown such traits just, if he may, to the public: honesty and humility.
If Khan truly was not hurt, then let him cover up his pride and say he was not hurt. Sometime, somehow, his idol Pacquiao can play the same music in the ring of madness for the sake of entertainment, dwarfing an easy win out of a fancy pain when it is more than just tolerable.
But, for Khan, his countenance and bearing both told us that his last three rounds with Maidana were not a gift to him. He was hurt. And he was exposed.
Even then, Khan continues to hurl challenges to fight against Floyd Mayweather, Jr. But, let me tell you this: Khan may not have the compounding arsenals to dismantle the highly intelligent Mayweather, Jr., even under the promptings of the Wild Card trainer, Freddie Roach.
A rematch with Maidana soon is imperative. But, for that rematch, Maidana’s best might shine gloriously over Khan. And only then, Khan will admit that he is truly hurt. At least for that time onward, he’ll manifest the spirit of a true champion.
Granville Ampong is an all-time political activist and a credentialed journalist. He writes a column for the broadsheets of Tri-Media Group of Companies in the US. He is also a Featured Sportswriter for
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Yahoo Network and has been honored with three titles at Examiner.com, to wit: Celebrity Politics Examiner, Filipino Celebrity Headlines Examiner and Bible Prophecy Examiner – all these for National Edition. He is the curator and founder of the Investigative Agency of Journalists. He won first place in the International Speech Contest in 2000. Contact Granville at [email protected] .
