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1) Amir Khan has the heart of a champion, just not the fighting ability of one.
I feel bad writing this, because Khan performed extremely well in the fight. He fought a lot better than most experts thought he would until he was caught in the 6th round by a swinging right from Canelo. However, the fight really opened my eyes to the flaws in King Khan’s game. This may be my bias speaking, but coming into this fight, I honestly thought that Khan was a premier prize-fighter. The truth is, he simply isn’t. Amir Khan relies too heavily on his hand speed, and this blessing is often a curse when it comes to his style. He trades too often with more powerful fighters instead of moving around the ring which greatly compromises his defense. When you look at the knockout, Canelo Alvarez did to Khan exactly what he did to James Kirkland. He jabbed low, and came up top with the right. The low jab brought down Khan’s hands the exact same way that it brought down Kirkland’s, leaving his entire face open for punishment. All that being said, my respect for Khan for taking this fight has skyrocketed.
2) Weight classes matter
I’m not sure this is news to anyone, but size matters. This is true in all combat sports. We just saw McGregor lose to Diaz on March 5th. Diaz came in without a full camp (McGregor's first opponent dropped out due to an injury) and even though he was sloppy, he still was able to win based on his size alone. McGregor was able to land some great hits of course, but it did not matter. Getting hit or wrestling with someone much larger than you takes up much more of your energy than you are used to, and the later the fight goes, the more likely you are to get your face rearranged.
This is exactly what happened to Khan. Most people had Khan up 3 rounds to 2 going into the 6th round, but it was easy to see that Canelo was gaining steam once he was able to land some shots on Khan to slow him down.
3) The boxing community is tired of catch-weights
One of the most memorable things that happened in the ring occurred once the fight was over. During the post-fight interview with Max Kellerman, Amir Khan said what was probably on everyone’s mind. Canelo needs to stop fighting these smaller fighters, and actually defend his middleweight belt against another middleweight, Gennady “GGG” Golovkin. Golovkin was the mandatory for the Khan-Canelo fight, meaning that whoever won Khan-Canelo would be required to defend the belt against Golovkin.
4) Belts don’t mean anything anymore
In my opinion, belts don’t matter to the upper echelon anymore. When Andre Ward was supermiddle weight champion, everyone wanted to see a fight between him and Gennady Golovkin. Golovkin stated in an interview at a WBC’s convention in China that he “fights at middleweight, or super middleweight.” However, when Ward was the champion at super middleweight, Golovkin would not fight him for the belt. Andre Ward even said that he would move down to 160 pounds to fight Golovkin for the Middleweight belt, but Golovkin would not take that fight either. We just saw the same thing happen with Canelo-Khan. Once Canelo retained his middleweight belt against Amir Khan, he was required to fight Golovkin, or give up the belt. I’m sure you can guess which option Canelo chose. Canelo gave up the belt to avoid a mega-fight against the hottest fighter in boxing right now. This is the most hypocritical thing I have ever seen in boxing. The entire promotion for Canelo-Khan was that boxing fans deserve to see superstars fight each other; that the sport needs mega-fights, and that Canelo and Golden Boy Promotions would now deliver mega-fights.
5) History repeats itself
In conclusion, this fight turned out to be more important than advertised. Sure, we got a great fight from two great fighters. However, what happened after Canelo’s hand was raised proved to be more important that what happened in the ring. We already knew that many boxers would sort of dodge fights against tougher opponents, but there were always excuses that were somewhat believable. I’m not trying to say this is a new phenomenon that is happening in boxing, this has been happening for decades. Sugar Ray Leonard and Roberto Duran happened YEARS after it should have in the 80’s, Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao fought way after their prime, and Golvokin never fought Andre Ward. Fans are tired of waiting, and are tired of all the talk that happens in the sport of boxing. When Max Kellerman asked Canelo Alvarez after the fight if he would fight Gennady Golovkin, Canelo responded with, “Like we say in Mexico, we don’t f*** around, we don’t fight for rings and stuff like that, I don’t fear anyone.” As always, talk is cheap, and nothing changes.
I feel bad writing this, because Khan performed extremely well in the fight. He fought a lot better than most experts thought he would until he was caught in the 6th round by a swinging right from Canelo. However, the fight really opened my eyes to the flaws in King Khan’s game. This may be my bias speaking, but coming into this fight, I honestly thought that Khan was a premier prize-fighter. The truth is, he simply isn’t. Amir Khan relies too heavily on his hand speed, and this blessing is often a curse when it comes to his style. He trades too often with more powerful fighters instead of moving around the ring which greatly compromises his defense. When you look at the knockout, Canelo Alvarez did to Khan exactly what he did to James Kirkland. He jabbed low, and came up top with the right. The low jab brought down Khan’s hands the exact same way that it brought down Kirkland’s, leaving his entire face open for punishment. All that being said, my respect for Khan for taking this fight has skyrocketed.
2) Weight classes matter
I’m not sure this is news to anyone, but size matters. This is true in all combat sports. We just saw McGregor lose to Diaz on March 5th. Diaz came in without a full camp (McGregor's first opponent dropped out due to an injury) and even though he was sloppy, he still was able to win based on his size alone. McGregor was able to land some great hits of course, but it did not matter. Getting hit or wrestling with someone much larger than you takes up much more of your energy than you are used to, and the later the fight goes, the more likely you are to get your face rearranged.
This is exactly what happened to Khan. Most people had Khan up 3 rounds to 2 going into the 6th round, but it was easy to see that Canelo was gaining steam once he was able to land some shots on Khan to slow him down.
3) The boxing community is tired of catch-weights
One of the most memorable things that happened in the ring occurred once the fight was over. During the post-fight interview with Max Kellerman, Amir Khan said what was probably on everyone’s mind. Canelo needs to stop fighting these smaller fighters, and actually defend his middleweight belt against another middleweight, Gennady “GGG” Golovkin. Golovkin was the mandatory for the Khan-Canelo fight, meaning that whoever won Khan-Canelo would be required to defend the belt against Golovkin.
4) Belts don’t mean anything anymore
In my opinion, belts don’t matter to the upper echelon anymore. When Andre Ward was supermiddle weight champion, everyone wanted to see a fight between him and Gennady Golovkin. Golovkin stated in an interview at a WBC’s convention in China that he “fights at middleweight, or super middleweight.” However, when Ward was the champion at super middleweight, Golovkin would not fight him for the belt. Andre Ward even said that he would move down to 160 pounds to fight Golovkin for the Middleweight belt, but Golovkin would not take that fight either. We just saw the same thing happen with Canelo-Khan. Once Canelo retained his middleweight belt against Amir Khan, he was required to fight Golovkin, or give up the belt. I’m sure you can guess which option Canelo chose. Canelo gave up the belt to avoid a mega-fight against the hottest fighter in boxing right now. This is the most hypocritical thing I have ever seen in boxing. The entire promotion for Canelo-Khan was that boxing fans deserve to see superstars fight each other; that the sport needs mega-fights, and that Canelo and Golden Boy Promotions would now deliver mega-fights.
5) History repeats itself
In conclusion, this fight turned out to be more important than advertised. Sure, we got a great fight from two great fighters. However, what happened after Canelo’s hand was raised proved to be more important that what happened in the ring. We already knew that many boxers would sort of dodge fights against tougher opponents, but there were always excuses that were somewhat believable. I’m not trying to say this is a new phenomenon that is happening in boxing, this has been happening for decades. Sugar Ray Leonard and Roberto Duran happened YEARS after it should have in the 80’s, Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao fought way after their prime, and Golvokin never fought Andre Ward. Fans are tired of waiting, and are tired of all the talk that happens in the sport of boxing. When Max Kellerman asked Canelo Alvarez after the fight if he would fight Gennady Golovkin, Canelo responded with, “Like we say in Mexico, we don’t f*** around, we don’t fight for rings and stuff like that, I don’t fear anyone.” As always, talk is cheap, and nothing changes.
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