Amir Khan to fight Gairy St Clair

[Conrad]

On Frank Warren TV:

Amir Khan has an even tougher assignment on his hands when he faces former world champion Gairy St Clair on Saturday 2nd February at the Excel London.

The undefeated Bolton star was due to face Martin Kristjansen for the Vacant WBO Intercontinental Lightweight title but the Dane withdrew from the fight suffering from influenza.

Khan, who's last fight was a whirlwind 72-second blitz over Graham Earl, will now have a harder test against the Australian when he defend his Commonwealth title for the third time.

St Clair, the former IBF World Super-Featherweight Champion, has never been stopped in a 46-fight career and has extended former WBA World Light-World Champion Vivian Harris and the late Diego Corrales the full distance.

But by the way Khan is punching at the moment, he is determined to be the first to stop him.

Khan said: "Despite Kristjansen pulling out, I feel in fantastic shape at this point of my training. I'm punching real hard and just looking forward to getting in the ring on February 2nd to kick off my 2008 campaign towards the world title.

[Tam Seddon]

CC for the news, wow Frank really has pulled himself out of the shit for this one. This is a big risk fight and could go either way. Im surprised its happening. I said that Khan would have to fight an outstander if it wasnt Thaxton and this really is an outstander. Good luck to him !

[Saddo]

not sure what i make of this....a super feather with no power.

its prob a step in the right direction at this stage of his careers but boy are they ducking Thaxton bigtime

Here is his record...

http://www.boxrec.com/list_bouts.php...7786&cat=boxer

and here is also a recent photo of thaxton ......

[chip]

You beat me to it Saddo another super feather moving up with no punch power why not a proper lightweight with a dig. i might be wrong was this guy penned to fight Scott Harrison at some point could be wrong though

[Mark TKO]

although this guy is by no means a heavy hitter it looks as though he has a great deal more power than a lot of Khan's opponents to date. But why is he avoiding Thaxton at all costs



Anyway as I have always said from day one Khan will be found out and kayoed within 16 fights so maybe this is the one

[Tam Seddon]

St Clair has done more in terms of picking up a world title and fighting a lot better fighters than Thaxton. I dont see that Khan is avoiding him, I rekon he would fight him any time.

[Steelie]

although this guy is by no means a heavy hitter it looks as though he has a great deal more power than a lot of Khan's opponents to date. But why is he avoiding Thaxton at all costs



Anyway as I have always said from day one Khan will be found out and kayoed within 16 fights so maybe this is the one

You know Franks mantra 'the right fights, at the right time'.

Thaxtons firmly in the 'who needs him' club isn't he?

No one will even remember Thaxton a few years down the line should Amir continue his stellar rise.

[fishlock4ever]

good point, i can see why people get angry by warren's matchups, but in the big scheme of things, Khan not fighting Thaxton isnt going to be much of a big deal. A lot of people said the same about Hatton, and the end of the day i believe that if a fighter wants a fight it will happen...eventually!

[Saddo]

No one will even remember Thaxton a few years down the line should Amir continue his stellar rise.

Maybe so but if that rise involves ducking any real challanges and it turns out that he is the real deal he will be taking on all the big names well after his prime and coming up short

ALA...

Naz... relied on power only in the end and came up short against Barrera... we never seen that in the early days of Naz the power was a bonus.

Hatton... hit and hold spoiling got him through his last fights... he never had them tactics pre KT and would never just rush in with no head movment or thought in the early days.

and Prob Joe... Although luckly for Joe he still has the skills at this late stage of his Career to compete... but how long will they last.

[ono]

Good fight at late notice

Much better job then Warren did with getting Mitchell a fight at late notice anyway.

St Clair holds a win over Jackson Asiku....he's very decent

They offered Thaxton £100,000 and he turned it down. Where else is Thaxton going to earn more. If he was that confident about beating Amir, surely he would have signed? Afterall it would propell Thaxton onto bigger and better purses.

All i hear Thaxton do is call Kahn out when Kahn already has another fight signed. As soon as Kahn has ko'd his next opponent Thaxton will stay quiet....until Kahn is signed to fight someone else.

Didn't hear diddly squat from him after the Earl fight. Not until it emerged Kahn was fighting someone else anyway.

There really isn't anything in Thaxton's arsenal that suggest he has enough to beat Kahn. Other than decent power and fitness, he aint anywhere near Kahn's level.

[Bomp]

Anyone else notice that boxrec reckons St Clare is fighting in Sydney the night before? What a guy.


Seriously though, his record looks no worse than Thaxton, I'm sure Warren would've definitely got Thaxton if Jon was willing to take what this fella is getting.

[heihaci]

I think its a good replacement-it could have been worse because of the short notice!!

This guy has mixed it with some good guys and even went the distance with Corrales who at the time had record of 25-0 with 22 KO's.Corrales is about 6ft and this guy is 5 ft 4!!

If Thaxton was the replacement, ppl would be saying he never had time to prepare when Khan outclasses him!!
Thaxton was far from impressive against Dave Stewart and its obvious he is desperate for a big pay day.
I think there is still a chance Khan could be fighting Thaxton in April-it would be a big domestic fight and get alot of ppl interested!!

[Ghost]

Has anyone noticed that Gary is supposed to fight in Oz on the 1st of Feb.? The day before this fight

[superheavyrhun]

Is there nobody except Thaxton that would have pleased you guys? Personally, I think Warren putting him in with a former world title challenger whose only two defeats in seven years have been narrow points defeats to South Africans in South Africa is a risky move, and St Clair will have plenty of guile, experience and boxing skills.

This is a great test for Amir, and we'll see whether his power can take out St Clair, and whether he has the speed to catch him often enough. Not to dismiss Thaxton, but I think St Clair is an entirely different challenge, and Amir will have a hard night's work with this guy.

[Bukom Battler]

Fair play to Frank, I would much rather see this than the Christiansen fight. Have never heard of him but I guess he had the ranking. St Clairs last fight was at lightweight by the way.

He is a decent boxer and if he can take a dig at lightweight then i think he could cause Amir some problems.