Boxing: I For One Can’t Wait Till Amir Khan Shuts Up The Critics

Over the past few weeks I have been reading many articles on Amir Khan and how he is supposedly “ducking opponents”.  Sheer ignorance or desperation for an eye-catching title has been the main objective of these ludicrous articles. 
Being from the UK myself I have watched Amir Khan develop from a wet behind the ears kid to a world champion, under the guidance of trainer of the year Freddie Roach. 

Promoter Gary Shaw has been flapping his gums again, “I tried to make a fight between Amir Khan and Timothy Bradley” said Shaw, Bradleys promoter. “His Promoters Golden Boy Promotions said ‘absolutely no chance, no way.’ Mouthy Shaw went on to say “The reason why Amir Khan refuses to fight [WBA light welterweight interim champion Marcos Maidana] is he’s scared.

Well Mr Shaw let me educate you, Amir Khan would take apart Mr One Dimensional Maidana, the reason Amir Khan is not fighting such an opponent is down to the smart, very smart, Freddie Roach.  “Master” Roach knows, as do we all, Khan likes to please the crowd.  It’s been well documented the young lad feels he does not receive the love from the UK fan base, and to conquer he must compete across the pond.

To accomplish this Amir will need to please the crowd, this means engaging with his opponent.  Remember this will be Amir’s US debut and he is sure to get a rush of blood to the head and do just that, engage.  Maidana is all wrong for Khan, “for his debut fight”.    Wise Freddie knows Khan needs to fight this out of his system, so a bout with either soft hitting Paulie Malignaggi or aging but still durable Juan Manuel Marquez makes a whole lot of sense.  How people don’t see this baffles me.

Let’s compare Khan to fellow Brits.  Ricky Hatton was 27 years old and had built up a professional record of 40-0 before fighting stateside.  Joe Calzaghe was in his mid thirties and held a record of 44-0.  Amir Khan is 23 with a record of 22-1; I for one commend the young lad for embarking on such an adventure.  We all know that Khan is suspect around the whiskers, not just the devastating knockout loss to Prescott, but his visits to the canvas when fighting Willie Limond in 2007, and against Michael Gomez the following year. This provided us with a glimpse of the future, and what was to come.

However the smartest move team Khan made was to enrol the services of Freddie roach, Freddie can train Khan so he does not get hit, and this has been visible in his last couple of outings.    But the fact remains, will Khan Stick to a game plan in front of a crowd he wants on side, and in a country where he has never competed before. My guess is no, Khan will have all guns blazing so let’s grant him a pardon for his stateside debut, and then watch this space.   Ducking no, smart strategy yes.

By Mark Leroy

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