SAUL ALVAREZ vs AMIR KHAN: Super FIGHT or Super FARCE?

At the risk of sounding like a modern day “Victor Meldrew”. While many fans were blown away and excited by the news of the fight between Khan & Alvarez, personally I am not too convinced.

Don’t get me wrong, both are huge names and exciting fighters. Both will bring in the fans and the actual match up is intriguing. But to me, in essence, this is not just a mismatch but a kick in the teeth for a lot of boxers and a further indication of how money rules.

The fight will be for Alverez’ middleweight belt (although they will fight at 155 and the middleweight limit is 160). So Khan will be jumping up two weight classes to fight for the middleweight crown. Khan has only had three fights at welterweight, he has fought most of his career at light welterweight and lightweight.

This makes a massive difference. regardless of how exciting and quick you think Khan is. There are weight classes for a reason.

Canelo looked big against Cotto, who has fought for the last five years at middleweight and light middleweight. So how big do you think Canelo will look and be against Khan?

Many have said; “you have to take your hat off to Khan and he has some balls for taking this fight” which is true, but again I am not convinced. Khan has been searching for these win/win situations for a while.

He’s been campaigning for a fight with Mayweather and Pacquiao for years. Yeah it all sounds good on the outside but these were no pressure fights. If Khan wins, he would be a hero, if he lost, well we didn’t expect him to win anyway……No pressure at all.

Also if you have lost a few already, like Khan has. There is no problem losing another to a much bigger fighter while buffing up your bank account at the same time.

It would have been good and well Khan trying to get these fights, failing, then taking the Brook fight, which made business and boxing sense.

Even trying to get a Thurman, Porter or maybe and to a lesser extent a Broner fight. But these, especially the Brook fight are high risk fights and Khan wanted no part of that.

Don’t get me wrong, the Canelo fight is extremely high risk physically for Khan. But if he losses, unless he gets totally annihilated in one round, it will not have much of an effect on his reputation or bargaining position for other fights, and he will be much richer off for it.

But if he lost to a Brook or Thurman or Broner, that bargaining position and reputation would have taken a real hit. End of the day, I take my hat off to Khan’s team as it is a very good business move.

As for Canelo, a so-called superstar in boxing. One of the top pound for pound fighters and supposedly on the verge of a mega fight with Golovkin (who has been mandatory for Canelo’s title). To take a fight with a boxer who is two weight classes below, making him move up to a weight where Canelo has been comfortable at. Basically dents his reputation for me.

A person of his statue and his size should really not be taking these type of fights. There are so many middleweight’s, even light middleweight’s that have been fighting their way to obtaining a title shot. And Canelo pulls a guy that’s two weights below him, who has a reputation for having a weak chin to fight for the title? That’s disrespectful.

Obviously Khan’s camp will look at what Mayweather did to Canelo, look at how much trouble Lara gave Canelo, fighters who use speed, a lot of footwork and movement and use that tactic. But Khan is no Mayweather and he has not been brought up in the same Cuban boxing school and background as Ereslandy Lara.

To add to that, Canelo will be a big 155 and probably will be more around 165 walking into the ring.

Khan, despite what he might walk around as, will be fighting for the first time at the heavier weight, with no tune up fights.

It will be trial and error in terms of fighting at that weight and adapting his speed and footwork…All for the first time, IN A TITLE FIGHT! Crazy.

It’s even more crazy because Khan has previously been knocked out by Prescott and Garcia. Dropped by Diaz, hurt badly by Maidana and Peterson. Also, Khan did not exactly impress me in his last couple fights against the lighter punchers of Algieri & Alexander.

This is the reason I am not really convinced of this being a super fight, despite both fighters being massive names and given Khan credit for taking the fight. It will be good for the fans, as it will be interesting for as long as it lasts. How interesting, will however, depend on what Khan does.

He will need to be at his absolute best in terms of movement, speed and boxing ability. To stay on the outside and box Canelo, but can he do that for 12 rounds? Fact of the matter is, if Canelo, which he should be, is smart and skilled enough to cut off the ring and control the pace, then it will be curtains for Khan.