Last Saturday, the boxing world saw the almost guaranteed ‘knock-out’ of the year, when Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez caught Amir ‘King’ Khan with a vicious right hand which ended the fight instantaneously with many believing Khan to be seriously hurt.
A Canelo KO was the result which many boxing fans and experts alike but as the fight drew nearer people began to believe that maybe, just maybe, Khan could box his way to a decision on points. This prediction looked to be the smart choice because in the first 4 rounds Khan looked the far more skilled and accomplished fighter, jumping in and out of range with relative ease.
Canelo looked flat-footed in the early rounds like he did against Floyd Mayweather and Erislandy Lara, missing with the jab frequently. Canelo did his usual work of cutting off the ring and looking for that big shot however it did not seem to come until he threw a left hook feint and then caught a vicious right-hand which would have had any middleweight in trouble let alone a man who had technically stepped-up two weight divisions.
The key question is where does Khan go from here? It is clear that Canelo will be forced by his Mexican fan base to take the Gennady Golovkin fight and that is more a question of when rather than if. It is clear that Khan will move back down to welterweight and there are a whole host of options that he has in that division.
There is always the Kell Brook fight to take. Brook has been crying out for a big name and it would still be a massive fight in the UK however the fight looks ever more unlikely after Khan’s vicious KO and the fact that Khan simply does not want to give Brook a payday.
He is still mandatory for Danny Garcia’s welterweight title and that is a fight that Khan will certainly be looking to avenge having been KO’d back in 2012. It looks as though Garcia will look for an easy title defence first with names such as Andre Berto and Adrien Broner being thrown around however a fight with Garcia is one that simply does not appeal to fight fans.
In my opinion, Khan should hang up his gloves and retire. He has had an unbelievable career, winning a silver medal at the 2004 Olympics at the age of 17, recording some huge wins against a prime Paulie Malignaggi, Zab Judah and Marcos Maidana. One must remember he technically stepped-up two weight classes in order to try and secure his legacy and as much as I want to see the Brook-Khan fight, there are too many complications and with the pay-check from the Canelo fight he should sail into the sunset a happy and well-off man.
Tom Eckett
@boxingguru
No comments:
Post a Comment