Khan potential for greatness... or disaster

[Taeth]

I felt he put too many rounds away early in the fight to lose it, but I see two things with Amir Khan.
1. This guy has tremendous heart, I think he redeemed his chin a lot this fight, and he better speed than Mayweather or Pacquiao, I was flabbergasted by his speed.
2. He still has all the same problems Pacquiao does, without the big power or incredible stamina. He covers up on the inside and doesn't tie up, he is only effective offensively at certain ranges, but he also only effective defensively at certain distances as well. If you fought Khan at the right distance you could probably get him to not throw a punch the entire fight, and you could land at will on him. THe one thing that he doesn't have that pAcquiao does is that Manny always punches back right away.

If Khan is going to stay with Roach, he will really have to start working on even better stamina though I thought he was in pretty good shape, and he needs to really focus on defense because Manny has otherwordly skills in different areas that allow him to fight this way to effectively against almost anyone. I've seen many Roach fighters fight in a similar style, but only Manny has really dominated consistently with the hoping in and out combination style.

[Kev]

I felt he put too many rounds away early in the fight to lose it, but I see two things with Amir Khan.
1. This guy has tremendous heart, I think he redeemed his chin a lot this fight, and he better speed than Mayweather or Pacquiao, I was flabbergasted by his speed.
2. He still has all the same problems Pacquiao does, without the big power or incredible stamina. He covers up on the inside and doesn't tie up, he is only effective offensively at certain ranges, but he also only effective defensively at certain distances as well. If you fought Khan at the right distance you could probably get him to not throw a punch the entire fight, and you could land at will on him. THe one thing that he doesn't have that pAcquiao does is that Manny always punches back right away.

If Khan is going to stay with Roach, he will really have to start working on even better stamina though I thought he was in pretty good shape, and he needs to really focus on defense because Manny has otherwordly skills in different areas that allow him to fight this way to effectively against almost anyone. I've seen many Roach fighters fight in a similar style, but only Manny has really dominated consistently with the hoping in and out combination style.

I completely disagree about Khan not having stamina. His conditioning was incredible. You don't make it through desperate situations like that 10th round without being in asbolutely top physical condition.

Khan was hurt and rocked many times by a monster puncher and stood up (just) to the pressure. He may lose a lot of energy through being something of a nervous bundle but anyone can see he is in fantastic shape.

[ICB]

He will never ever be great, he's good fighter but he has too many flaws. And there's too many good fighters around him at the moment, i can't see him beating Timothy Bradley nor can i see him beating the top boys at Welterweight.

He will have an exciting career and will probably win, another world title in another weightclass at some point.

He showed good heart and better survival skills, but i've always thought he had heart and decent survival skills. Its just he got caught cold vs Breidis Prescott.

And to be honest he should of had an easier time vs Marcos Maidana, because he is very limited. But as i said before its a step in the right direction for Amir Khan. But his defense is still very leaky.

And he should stick to the gameplan of boxing, and not being macho and trying to trade, because that attitude will get him KO'ed.

He got hit far too much, i mean for all his speed. He's quite easy to tag which is suprising. Even Marcos Maidana's wide slow shots hit the target too many times.

But all in all its good to step him finally step up, lets hope thats a taster for things to come.

[Mark TKO]

his stocks really gone up after that as he can now sell an exciting fight and the ££££ will roll in.

He will be destined for great fights but not greatness - though at same time another knockout loss could shatter his career.

I just watched fight again and can't believe he survived that tenth round so credit to him.

I had him a comfortable UD winner last night for his early work and haven't changed my mind after rewatching BUT I think Maidana got the better of him physically in the fight overall - if you know what I mean here Apart from first Maidana wasnt really in trouble - and I am still amazed he managed to get up from that body shot !

I think he will have an easier time against Bradley than he did last mind

[Kev]

He will never ever be great, he's good fighter but he has too many flaws. And there's too many good fighters around him at the moment, i can't see him beating Timothy Bradley nor can i see him beating the top boys at Welterweight.

He will have an exciting career and will probably win, another world title in another weightclass at some point.

He showed good heart and better survival skills, but i've always thought he had heart and decent survival skills. Its just he got caught cold vs Breidis Prescott.

And to be honest he should of had an easier time vs Marcos Maidana, because he is very limited. But as i said before its a step in the right direction for Amir Khan. But his defense is still very leaky.

And he should stick to the gameplan of boxing, and not being macho and trying to trade, because that attitude will get him KO'ed.

He got hit far too much, i mean for all his speed. He's quite easy to tag which is suprising. Even Marcos Maidana's wide slow shots hit the target too many times.

But all in all its good to step him finally step up, lets hope thats a taster for things to come.

That's only an opinion though, and not backed up by any facts. Nobody has ever had an easy time with him. According to many he should have been undefeated coming to the fight with Khan.

He might be like Carl Froch, in the way that everyone has been saying for years 'Of course when he fights an elite fighter he will get picked apart and exposed the crude slugger he is.'. Well after fights against Pascal, Taylor, Dirrell, Kessler and Abraham nobody has had an easy night's work with him yet. I think Maidana may well be like that, you see his flaws and so presume the tops guys should have an easy nights work with him, but it may well not work out like that.

[bcollins]

He will never ever be great, he's good fighter but he has too many flaws. And there's too many good fighters around him at the moment, i can't see him beating Timothy Bradley nor can i see him beating the top boys at Welterweight.

He will have an exciting career and will probably win, another world title in another weightclass at some point.

He showed good heart and better survival skills, but i've always thought he had heart and decent survival skills. Its just he got caught cold vs Breidis Prescott.

And to be honest he should of had an easier time vs Marcos Maidana, because he is very limited. But as i said before its a step in the right direction for Amir Khan. But his defense is still very leaky.

And he should stick to the gameplan of boxing, and not being macho and trying to trade, because that attitude will get him KO'ed.

He got hit far too much, i mean for all his speed. He's quite easy to tag which is suprising. Even Marcos Maidana's wide slow shots hit the target too many times.

But all in all its good to step him finally step up, lets hope thats a taster for things to come.

That's only an opinion though, and not backed up by any facts. Nobody has ever had an easy time with him. According to many he should have been undefeated coming to the fight with Khan.

He might be like Carl Froch, in the way that everyone has been saying for years 'Of course when he fights an elite fighter he will get picked apart and exposed the crude slugger he is.'. Well after fights against Pascal, Taylor, Dirrell, Kessler and Abraham nobody has had an easy night's work with him yet. I think Maidana may well be like that, you see his flaws and so presume the tops guys should have an easy nights work with him, but it may well not work out like that.

That's a great point. A lot of people get blinded by superlative skills, and forget that that is not the sum total of a successful boxer. Maidana is a prime example - he gets by with almost no skill to speak of. He fights with power and heart, a slow plodding style that should be a breeze to pick apart. Yet he gets in there and proves a tough night's work for the highest level of competition.

Boxing history is chock full of fighters who defied the assumption that skill always wins.

[Kev]

He will never ever be great, he's good fighter but he has too many flaws. And there's too many good fighters around him at the moment, i can't see him beating Timothy Bradley nor can i see him beating the top boys at Welterweight.

He will have an exciting career and will probably win, another world title in another weightclass at some point.

He showed good heart and better survival skills, but i've always thought he had heart and decent survival skills. Its just he got caught cold vs Breidis Prescott.

And to be honest he should of had an easier time vs Marcos Maidana, because he is very limited. But as i said before its a step in the right direction for Amir Khan. But his defense is still very leaky.

And he should stick to the gameplan of boxing, and not being macho and trying to trade, because that attitude will get him KO'ed.

He got hit far too much, i mean for all his speed. He's quite easy to tag which is suprising. Even Marcos Maidana's wide slow shots hit the target too many times.

But all in all its good to step him finally step up, lets hope thats a taster for things to come.

That's only an opinion though, and not backed up by any facts. Nobody has ever had an easy time with him. According to many he should have been undefeated coming to the fight with Khan.

He might be like Carl Froch, in the way that everyone has been saying for years 'Of course when he fights an elite fighter he will get picked apart and exposed the crude slugger he is.'. Well after fights against Pascal, Taylor, Dirrell, Kessler and Abraham nobody has had an easy night's work with him yet. I think Maidana may well be like that, you see his flaws and so presume the tops guys should have an easy nights work with him, but it may well not work out like that.

That's a great point. A lot of people get blinded by superlative skills, and forget that that is not the sum total of a successful boxer. Maidana is a prime example - he gets by with almost no skill to speak of. He fights with power and heart, a slow plodding style that should be a breeze to pick apart. Yet he gets in there and proves a tough night's work for the highest level of competition.

Boxing history is chock full of fighters who defied the assumption that skill always wins.

Exactly, when it came to boxing skills Amir DID handle him easily and was quickly piling up the points in the early rounds. But Maidana's heart, endurance, toughness and ability to absorb punishment are simply outstanding. He absolutely has a world class chin and toughness.

What I cannot understand from Ice though is that he is big on Lucian Bute despite first time around getting completely smashed in the last round by Librado Andrade, again a fight with practically zero fighting skills. He was completely wrecked in that last round and is so lucky not to have a ko loss on his record.
Andrade went something like 0-16 as an amatuer, he is all heart.

Unfortunately for Andrade I think he has now absorbed too much punishment in his career in bruising beatdowns against Bute and Kessler, and his toughness will be diminishing, in the same way as Edison Miranda's has been.

In subsequent fights I expect Miranda, Andrade and Maidanan to slip as their fighting styles do not lend themselves to long careers.

So Maidana may well get taken out early in future fights.

But lets not use that as an excuse to diminish his abilities now. He wrecked one boxing's hottest prospects in Victor Ortiz. Khan stood up to him.

Devon Alexander was almost ruined by Kotelnik, a fighter who Khan breezed past.

On the form guide now I think it's going to be a Bradley/Khan winner takes all fight, and I think Khan will surprise everyone by completely dominating that fight.

I think Khan stops Alexander and wins by at least 3 or 4 rounds against Bradley.

[:::PSL:::]

Give the kid a chance ICB. I think he's gettin there slowly. Roach and Ariza are leading him to the right path. You're right, Khan has many flaws. But he's only 24 years old and he's pretty right on schedule if you compare it to Manny's fight history.

Now. Is it just me, or Khan emulates Pac too much?

[:::PSL:::]

Question to Khan supporters...

How many times did you look at the boxing clock on your monitor screen last night?



Bwoy. Whew! The fight was like a freaking heart dropping roller coaster ride.

[Taeth]

He will never ever be great, he's good fighter but he has too many flaws. And there's too many good fighters around him at the moment, i can't see him beating Timothy Bradley nor can i see him beating the top boys at Welterweight.

He will have an exciting career and will probably win, another world title in another weightclass at some point.

He showed good heart and better survival skills, but i've always thought he had heart and decent survival skills. Its just he got caught cold vs Breidis Prescott.

And to be honest he should of had an easier time vs Marcos Maidana, because he is very limited. But as i said before its a step in the right direction for Amir Khan. But his defense is still very leaky.

And he should stick to the gameplan of boxing, and not being macho and trying to trade, because that attitude will get him KO'ed.

He got hit far too much, i mean for all his speed. He's quite easy to tag which is suprising. Even Marcos Maidana's wide slow shots hit the target too many times.

But all in all its good to step him finally step up, lets hope thats a taster for things to come.

Look how many flaws Manny had when he was 24... Or Martinez. I agree with you, but he can change his defensive skills.

[ICB]

He will never ever be great, he's good fighter but he has too many flaws. And there's too many good fighters around him at the moment, i can't see him beating Timothy Bradley nor can i see him beating the top boys at Welterweight.

He will have an exciting career and will probably win, another world title in another weightclass at some point.

He showed good heart and better survival skills, but i've always thought he had heart and decent survival skills. Its just he got caught cold vs Breidis Prescott.

And to be honest he should of had an easier time vs Marcos Maidana, because he is very limited. But as i said before its a step in the right direction for Amir Khan. But his defense is still very leaky.

And he should stick to the gameplan of boxing, and not being macho and trying to trade, because that attitude will get him KO'ed.

He got hit far too much, i mean for all his speed. He's quite easy to tag which is suprising. Even Marcos Maidana's wide slow shots hit the target too many times.

But all in all its good to step him finally step up, lets hope thats a taster for things to come.

Look how many flaws Manny had when he was 24... Or Martinez. I agree with you, but he can change his defensive skills.

Amir Khan isn't Manny Pacquiao end of, nor is he in Terry Norris's league either. Another fighter with a suspect chin who was skillful.

[Taeth]

I felt he put too many rounds away early in the fight to lose it, but I see two things with Amir Khan.
1. This guy has tremendous heart, I think he redeemed his chin a lot this fight, and he better speed than Mayweather or Pacquiao, I was flabbergasted by his speed.
2. He still has all the same problems Pacquiao does, without the big power or incredible stamina. He covers up on the inside and doesn't tie up, he is only effective offensively at certain ranges, but he also only effective defensively at certain distances as well. If you fought Khan at the right distance you could probably get him to not throw a punch the entire fight, and you could land at will on him. THe one thing that he doesn't have that pAcquiao does is that Manny always punches back right away.

If Khan is going to stay with Roach, he will really have to start working on even better stamina though I thought he was in pretty good shape, and he needs to really focus on defense because Manny has otherwordly skills in different areas that allow him to fight this way to effectively against almost anyone. I've seen many Roach fighters fight in a similar style, but only Manny has really dominated consistently with the hoping in and out combination style.

I completely disagree about Khan not having stamina. His conditioning was incredible. You don't make it through desperate situations like that 10th round without being in asbolutely top physical condition.

Khan was hurt and rocked many times by a monster puncher and stood up (just) to the pressure. He may lose a lot of energy through being something of a nervous bundle but anyone can see he is in fantastic shape.

I wasn't talking about that late in, and I think part of the stamina thing is that Khan was moving way too much, but he was already slowing down with the punches thrown by the fourth or fifth round even though he was always more successful when he was throwing punches.

[Rantcatrat]

his stocks really gone up after that as he can now sell an exciting fight and the ££££ will roll in.

He will be destined for great fights but not greatness - though at same time another knockout loss could shatter his career.

I just watched fight again and can't believe he survived that tenth round so credit to him.

I had him a comfortable UD winner last night for his early work and haven't changed my mind after rewatching BUT I think Maidana got the better of him physically in the fight overall - if you know what I mean here Apart from first Maidana wasnt really in trouble - and I am still amazed he managed to get up from that body shot !

I think he will have an easier time against Bradley than he did last mind

I don't disagree. Bradley doesn't have much punching power and Khan will fight at range. I think I favor him against Bradley right now although I'll be rooting for Bradley.

I agree that I thought he would have an easier time with Maidana after seeing him have easier times with Kotelnik (who beat Maidana) and Paulie who is a better boxer than Maidana. That is why I think punchers are always going to be tough for Khan for some reason.

I like Khan against Marquez at 140.

Did someone really suggest Maidana against Berto at 147? That's ridiculous. Maidana should try and secure a rematch with Khan or the loser of the Bradley/Devon fight. Moving up to fight Berto would be moronic at this point.

[Majesty]

his stocks really gone up after that as he can now sell an exciting fight and the ££££ will roll in.

He will be destined for great fights but not greatness - though at same time another knockout loss could shatter his career.

I just watched fight again and can't believe he survived that tenth round so credit to him.

I had him a comfortable UD winner last night for his early work and haven't changed my mind after rewatching BUT I think Maidana got the better of him physically in the fight overall - if you know what I mean here Apart from first Maidana wasnt really in trouble - and I am still amazed he managed to get up from that body shot !

I think he will have an easier time against Bradley than he did last mind

I don't disagree. Bradley doesn't have much punching power and Khan will fight at range. I think I favor him against Bradley right now although I'll be rooting for Bradley.

I agree that I thought he would have an easier time with Maidana after seeing him have easier times with Kotelnik (who beat Maidana) and Paulie who is a better boxer than Maidana. That is why I think punchers are always going to be tough for Khan for some reason.

I like Khan against Marquez at 140.

Did someone really suggest Maidana against Berto at 147? That's ridiculous. Maidana should try and secure a rematch with Khan or the loser of the Bradley/Devon fight. Moving up to fight Berto would be moronic at this point.

I disagree that he would have an easier time with Bradley. I disagree greatly with that.

It isn't because of Bradley's power that he would trouble Khan, it is Bradley's counter punching in combination with his smart aggression and 'shock' power. He is a very good aggressive counter puncher with decent speed and straighter punches then Maidana. And one of Bradley's money punches is a counter left hook which Khan has been troubled by in the past.

I think Bradley is very rough style wise for Khan. Khan would have an easier time with Alexander than he would with Bradley