Amir Khan is on of the better prospects in boxing today, and has every advantage that an up and coming fighter could have.
Other than his talent and Olympic success, Khan also works with Freddie Roach and Manny Pacquiao, the current pound for pound champion. Khan also seems to be aware of his own limitations and doesn’t want to progress faster in competition than he can cope with, which is what hampers a lot of prospects.
Khan currently sports a record of 21-1 and holds the WBA World light welterweight title, although most think he will eventually move up the weight classes as he grows and fills out.
The sole loss on his record came at the hands of Breidis Prescott, a Columbian prospect who everyone thought Khan was supposed to walk right through. A rumored rematch has been floatinbg around, which would allow Khan to get some of his confidence and killer instinct back.
Prescott, who is otherwise fairly unknown is also eager for the rematch, although is first fighting Britain’s other Lightweight prospect Kevin Mitchell, (who most predict he will lose to) in a WBO lightweight title eliminator.
The loss that night highlighted Khans one weakness however, his questionable chin and at the time lack of defence. His defense has since improved, but of course there isn’t much you can do about a glass jaw. Whether he can tune up his defense enough to stop his chin being a factor in most of his fights will probably decide his long term success.
Khans one weakness is his chin (AP Photo/John Super)
The current king
As the sports current pound for pound king, Manny Pacquiao is untouchable at the moment as the best fighter in the world. The only challenger to his pound for pound claim is Floyd Mayweather Jr, and this rivalry looks to be in the process of being resolved.
Pacquiao has also won belts in a historic 7 weight classes, and could probably get at least one more if he picked his opponents right. Pacquiao and his team has stated that he intends to have two more fights before retiring and pursuing his political interests full time. The favorites for these two fights are Floyd Mayweather and Shane Mosley, although the final decisions are probably yet to be made.
By all accounts, Pacquiao and Khan both give a good account of themselves during sparring, and being able to work with someone as aggressive and fearless as Pacquiao is sure to improve Khans defences. The current king (AP Photo)
Can Amir achieve as much as Pacquiao?
The chances are that he can, although at fewer weight classes. Having started at lightweight rather than flyweight, moving up the divisions will obviously be a lot harder than it was for Pacquiao, who still isn’t completely dwarfed by Welterweights. For Khan this would put him at cruiserweight, where he would be much smaller than most of his opposition. That isn’t to say that Khan couldn’t compete, but he would have to radically change his style as he went up, where he would no longer be able to rely on his long reach as he often does these days. As Khan grows and builds muscle, he might be forced to climb the divisions also, rather than having to make a conscious effort to.
While Khan is still yet to get to the same level as the likes of Mayweather, Cotto, Pacquiao et-al, he does have a lot of the same attributes that Pacquiao had as a developing fighter. He has always had the speed, decent movemenet and power. His big weakness is his chin, although parallels can be made with a young Pacquiao as well. People tend to forget that Manny was knocked out early in his career, although not from having a suspect chin.
Manny’s weakness was that he relied on his right hand too much and was often too aggressive for his own good, rushing in when it would have been wiser to wait. He also lacked the defensive skills that he has today, although is still sometimes happy to ship a few punches to land some of his own. Khan comparatively tends to leave his hands too low and forgets to tuck his chin, although these are all things that can be cured by enough time with Freddie Roach and team.
Speaking to SportingLife Freddie Roach said of his charge:
“He has the body frame to move up for sure. 135 was okay, but 140 I like him better at. As he fills out and matures a little bit he’ll definitely end up as a welterweight and maybe end up as a middleweight one day, I would say.”
Khan said of his upcoming fight:
“I’m improving every fight, getting better an better. We learned a lot from the Kotelnik fight,” said Khan. “We’ve improved it so we’re going to go into this fight not making the same mistakes we made in the Kotelnik fight.
