Boxing Preview: Amir Khan vs. Gairy St. Clair

The Amir Khan world title quest moves up another notch tonight, February 2, when the Bolton boy wonder makes the third and potentially toughest defence of his Commonwealth Lightweight title against Gairy St .Clair at the Excel Arena in London.

“This is a serious test for Amir,” Promoter Frank Warren told this week’s press conference, “It’s going to test all his abilities. He’s in with somebody who is a former world champion and has never been stopped.”

Australian based Guyanan Gairy St. Clair, 39-5-2 (17), certainly appears to be a worthy adversary to the 2004 Athens Olympian. As stated by Warren, the challenger, who celebrates his 33rd birthday today, has never been halted in a long and successful career despite being in with top level opposition such as Leonard Dorin, Vivian Harris and the late Diego Corrales.

Seven years ago, St. Clair was hired as a sparring partner to Aussie/Russian legend Kostya Tsyzu and has been based down under ever since, forming a solid relationship with veteran trainer Johnny Lewis. After putting a defeat to future WBA lightweight champion Dorin behind him, St. Clair embarked on a 22 fight unbeaten run that culminated in him outpointing South Africa’s Cassius Baloyi for the IBF super-featherweight crown in July 2006.

He lost the trinket to Malcolm Klassen in his first defence and his since lost again in a repeat match up with Baloyi. His last victory was in December when he beat limited journeyman Robert Oyan on points over six rounds.

Despite dropping two of his last three, Gairy comes into the contest full of confidence and believes he has the tools to cap his birthday celebrations off with a stoppage victory. He said, “I’ve seen a few of Amir’s fights and he likes sticking his chin out. I hope he does that against me because it will be the perfect birthday present. I’ll clock him one so quick he’ll be on the floor before he knows it.”

While it’s true that Khan has hung his chin out to dry in his previous fights and, as a result, has been punished (a la Willie Limond), the challenger may find connecting his shots tougher than he thinks due to the massive size and reach differential.

Standing at 5 foor 10 inches tall, 21 year old Amir is a mammoth six inches taller than the Sutherland, New South Wales, based South American and should be able to prevent the shorter man getting on the inside if he boxes well behind his jab.

All this said, St Clair is still capable of extending Khan and is not the proverbial lamb to the slaughter that original opponent Martin Kristensen, who pulled out after his preparations were disrupted by his catching flu, would have been.

In his last outing, Khan moved smoothly to his 15th and best career win by blasting out the clearly overawed Graham Earl in 72 seconds in early December. Earl was a former British, Commonwealth and WBU belt holder but looked like a rabbit in headlights before the opening bell rang that night and young Amir wasted no time in taking advantage of the Luton man’s shakiness.

Khan feels he’s in for a much longer night this evening, “He (St Clair) has got a good chin and he’s strong,” he said. “I’ve trained for 12 round s and I’m ready for it.”

After this fight, Khan has hopes of securing a shot at one of the four major world titles. It’s only natural that someone who possess the skills that Amir clealy does to want to step up into the world class but at just 21, and with the two unrelated Diaz’s, Juan and David, hogging all the marbles at 135 pounds, I personally feel the boy from Bolton still needs a little more seasoning and should get a couple more solid wins against tough technicians such as the Jon Thaxtons or Yuri Romanovs of this world before he starts dreaming of headline shows in Vegas or at the MSG.

His 15 consecutive wins with 12 coming inside schedule certainly sounds impressive but the reality is that Amir, like 90 percent of all emerging talents, was wrapped snugly in cotton wool for at least his first 10 pro contests and is sadly deluded if he believes he is one fight away from holding his own with anybody in the divisions top five.

This not meant as any disrespect to Amir because, for me, he is undoubtedly a future world titlist but even he has to realise that he is chasing a lost cause if he has pretensions of becoming Britain’s youngest ever world champion.

If he is to get a world title shot then his best chance would come with the WBO, who it is said are due to strip Juan “The Baby Bull” Diaz and install interim belt holder Michael Katsidis as their main champion. That said, I still don’t feel Khan is ready for the big punching Aussie of Greek descent yet

Fight Verdict: I see St. Clair weathering an early storm and possibly nicking a couple of rounds but, due to his lack of height and the fact that he is naturally a super-featherweight, I don’t see him having the strength to hold off Khan and I prediction him being picked apart and stopped for the first time in or around the tenth stanza.