Amir Khan – Let him follow David Haye’s path
Khan overcame a fantastic effort from veteran Michael Gomez to hand him his first defeat. In an action-packed fight, Khan put Gomez down hard in the first round, possibly giving credence to the opinion of many pre-fight observers – that it looked like a mismatch & Gomez would do well to last more than a round..
But last more than a round Gomez did – In addition, he returned the favour in round two, hitting Khan flush with a great left hook, and knocking him to the canvas. Whilst Khan was up quickly, he looked dazed & shaky for a good part of the rest of the round.
Whilst Gomez had his moments after that – Notably a sickening body punch in the fourth which had Khan wincing in pain, and covering his ribs for the rest of the round – Khan regained the momentum, and whilst some might have protested the stoppage for being premature (Gomez included) the amount of leather he ate during the fight more than justified the caution in my opinion. Gomez is brave to the brink of insanity, and needed saving from himself.
Before the fight, the overwhelming opinion was that Khan would blow Gomez away, so naturally Amir came under some harsh criticism after the bout. Rarely does a prospect have so much hype around him, and that hype sometimes seems to go against Khan when he’s not perceived to be delivering the goods to the expected degree.
Khan himself said after the fight that he’d love to fight for a world title as soon as possible. Predictably, his promoter, the notoriously overprotective Frank Warren let it be known that he thought that Khan was not ready yet, and needed at least two more fights before a world title challenge.
Warren frequently aggravates boxing fans for his penchant of keeping his fighters away from live opponents until he’s sure they’re absolutely ready. To Frank’s credit, it can be argued he must have got something right to have nurtured the careers of Joe Calzaghe & Ricky Hatton amongst many others. Warren’s detractor would probably say however, that Calzaghe & Hatton could have earned the publics respect & been in the limelight quicker had they taken on more live opponents early.
Herein lies the problem with Khan for me. Warren apparently sees, moreso than other promoters, the value of an unbeaten record as a bartering tool. That it has some clout I don’t dispute – I can’t think of another sport where being undefeated has more of an allure, but just having a zero in your loss column doesn’t make you a great fighter – and in some cases, it can cause you trouble in that you can get overconfident or lose the dedication you badly need to be successful in the sport.
In Amir Khan’s case, Warren has also come under fire for refusing to put Khan in with any big punchers. Michael Gomez has a good knockout record but fought most of his career at Super-Featherweight, so a good argument can be made that Khan still hasn’t to date been in with anyone his own size who can bang. Furthermore, he’s been put down 3 times already – once by an unknown Frenchman named Richid Drilzane, who at that point hadn’t scored a single knockout in ten victories up to that point, once by Willie Limond, who is a good boxer, but not regarded as a big hitter, and Gomez we’ve already covered.
Khan is young and still learning, but he’s 21 now, and both physically & mentally appears far more mature than the 17-year-old who captured the British public’s imagination whilst winning the silver medal at the Athens Olympics. He seems to have a good head on his shoulders & plenty of character & resolve.
When pondering Khan’s predicament, I’m reminded of another British boxing superstar – David Haye.
Haye was also a brilliant amateur, and despite not competing in the Olympics still carried a lot of expectation on his broad shoulders when turning pro. Haye was also down in an early fight against a man not regarded as a great puncher – Lolenga Mock to be precise.
Following that, Haye made a massive gamble by electing to fight veteran walking highlight reel Carl Thompson, a criminally uncelebrated warrior of the highest degree. After nearly decapitating Carl several times in the first four rounds, Haye began to tire and was stopped by the crafty & immensely brave Thompson in the fifth. As if to perpetuate the myth of an unbeaten record meaning everything, the commentator screamed ‘David Haye’s career is in tatters’ on the broadcast shortly after the fight was stopped.
This proved to be anything but true. Haye, showing great strength of character, picked himself up from the defeat, took stock of where he’d made mistakes & came back stronger & more ferocious than ever, knocking out a succession of rated opponents including Glen Kelly, Vincenzo Rossitto, the very dangerous Alexander Gurov & finally Giacobbe Fragomeni (who, incidentally, is now challenging for the vacant WBC cruiserweight title after his only defeat to Haye) before taking on Jean-Marc Mormeck in his hometown of Paris & knocking him out before a partisan French crowd to win the recognition of being the world’s number one cruiserweight.
The point I’m making is that Haye had already got the undefeated record stigma out of his system. He could afford to take risks, and he had learned a lot from his defeat. Now Haye has moved up to Heavyweight, and already has the world talking about how he might end up being the one to overthrow the one seen as the best Heavyweight out there – Wladimir Klitschko – And he did all this WITHOUT an undefeated record.
Khan doesn’t have the same outright arrogance that Haye does, but he does have a number of his other traits – Breathtaking speed, heavy hands & astonishing accuracy. Plus, he’s ENORMOUS for a Lightweight.
I think Amir Khan would benefit from being thrown into the Lightweight contenders mix right now. He might get beat, but he’s still young, has confidence with good people around him, and would still be able to get right back into it if he did.
He might also surprise a lot of people & swim where it’s presumed he might sink. Either way he would get a lot more respect from the public & get the experience he badly needs for when he does face opponents his own size who can punch…
