Why a Rematch with Danny Garcia Makes the Most Sense for Amir Khan
The WBC has made it clear: Danny Garcia must defend his welterweight title against Amir Khan by June or else give up the belt.
Garcia claimed the vacant strap thanks to a unanimous points win over Robert Guerrero on Jan. 23, with all three judges scoring the contest 116-112.
Khan—already confirmed as the mandatory challenger—was in the audience at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. He had a front-row view to watch his next potential opponent, although he knows plenty about Garcia already.
The pair fought at light welterweight in Las Vegas back in July 2012. Garcia—a late replacement after Lamont Peterson tested positive for a banned substance—was a heavy underdog, despite already being in possession of the WBC’s belt at 140 pounds.
Garcia, though, found a way to cause an upset.
He knocked down Khan—who was reinstated as the WBA’s Super champion once Peterson was discovered to have taken a synthetic testosterone—three times before stopping him in Round 4.
The key moment came in Round 3, however, when Khan took a left hook to the neck.
The blow turned him into the boxing equivalent of a myotonic goat, as his muscles froze temporarily when in a state of panic (take a look at the fainting goats on YouTube). Legs locked, Khan fell straight back, bouncing his head against the canvas.
He survived the ensuing onslaught after the knockdown, but the break between rounds only provided brief respite.
In the aftermath to the shock loss, boxing journalist Gareth A Davies wrote about Khan in the Telegraph: "He will be accused of being 'overprotected, over-hyped'. Khan remains hugely exciting as a fighter, a man with massive desire and heart and clear brilliance in his athletic abilities. Yet his flaws are clear to see."
That was in 2012, and yet those same words still ring true now.
Since the defeat to Garcia, Khan has recorded five successive wins. He showed off his dazzling boxing skills in dismantling Devon Alexander in December 2014, Yet, since that stellar display, he has fought just once, beating Chris Algieri on points after an easily forgettable 12 rounds.
While he hasn't been active in the ring over the year, he has been busy talking to the media.
Khan chased Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao. He chased them hard. His pursuit of the former bordered on the obsessive. Even now, with Money retired, Khan hasn't given up, telling TMZ Sports: "It seems to me that Mayweather's afraid and he might just not ever want to fight me."
Since he is pricing himself out of a domestic showdown with fellow Englishman and IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook, according to promoter Eddie Hearn on Twitter, Garcia is his best option.
A Wembley showdown—Hearn pre-emptively booked the venue for the first weekend in June—with Brook makes the most sense financially, but a second clash with Garcia appears to be a bigger draw for Khan. You are better with the devil you know than the devil you don’t, right?
Khan is adamant he would come out on top second time around, telling John Dennen of Boxing News:
"I know the mistakes I made in the first fight and believe me I will not be making them again. I was very comfortable boxing him in the first fight and won the first three rounds very easy. I allowed the trash talk beforehand to get to me and I went looking for the knockout too early when he was still dangerous. I’ve definitely become a smarter fighter and a better one since then and I’m sure that if we meet again it will be a totally different outcome.
"
The boxer from Bolton is right in one respect: He was "comfortable" when boxing Garcia in the early stages.
Per CompuBox stats, Khan landed 56 punches, 33 of them jabs, over the first six minutes. Garcia, in contrast, found the target with just 18 shots and didn’t even connect with a jab in Round 1.
It all went downhill, and quickly, for Khan in Round 3. His confidence led to him venturing in too close, and he got caught with Garcia’s best punch, a left hook, thrown on the counter.
Khan, who had been riled by the pre-fight antics of Angel Garcia, Danny’s father and trainer, paid the price for betraying the tactics devised in conjunction with his then-trainer, Freddie Roach.
Instead of continuing to box at a distance, using his superior hand speed to wear down Garcia, he foolishly put himself in a situation where the odds were no longer heavily stacked in his favour.
Against Alexander, with Virgil Hunter now working his corner, Khan carried out the plan he should have followed against Garcia to perfection.
According to CompuBox stats (h/t BoxingScene.com), he landed 123 jabs and 120 power punches over the 12 rounds with Alexander. In contrast, his opponent hit him with 22 jabs at a success rate of 9 per cent.
Khan, however, will do well to ever prove the doubters wrong about one aspect—his chin.
Garcia is one of only two men to have beaten the silver medallist from the 2004 Olympics inside the distance. Heavy-handed Colombian Breidis Prescott was the other, back in 2008, and both stoppages were triggered by left hooks.
Marcos Maidana did everything but knock down Khan during Round 10 of their 2010 meeting in Las Vegas. While the Bolton boxer somehow managed to stay upright on that occasion, Julio Diaz put him on the canvas in 2013.
When he is buzzed, it seems to flick a switch inside Khan's head. He changes from skilled practitioner to jelly-legged cannon fodder. The notion you have a fight-or-flight response when coming under attack suggests you automatically choose one of the two options. Khan, though, seems to hover between both.
Rather than hang on and gain precious seconds to try to recover his senses, he backtracks and offers a flimsy defence that is the boxing equivalent of attempting to stop a tidal wave with a tea towel.
For example, take a look at what happened in Round 10 against Maidana (from 2:49 in the clip):
Khan is caught by a right hand thrown from so far back that his rival must have launched it a full week in advance. His response at first is to hold on for dear life, but then he resorts to retreating and pushing.
Against Garcia, he deployed the same survival methods, at least to a certain extent:
There was not so much backpedalling (but still the pushing, something that cost Khan two crucial points in his controversial loss to Peterson in 2011) but also a foolish desire to stand and trade.
He even became the aggressor out of the two boxers late in Round 4, only to take a punch to the top of the head that knocked him down for a third and final time.
While Khan can work hard in the gym on his defensive technique, he has shown a weakness when it comes to absorbing shots.
No matter how many times he switches trainers, no matter how much work he puts in at the gym, his powers of recovery are not going to dramatically change at this stage of his career.
Khan’s fragility is part of what makes him a must-watch fighter, yet his once-promising career is stagnating.
Now is the time to take a gamble, and at least against Garcia, he knows what to expect. That counts for both Danny in the ring and father Angel in the pre-fight press conferences.
Garcia also knows that, no matter how many of Khan’s jabs he has to eat, he can change the entire complexion of the fight with one single punch.
His career knockout ratio of 56 per cent doesn't suggest he is a concussive puncher. But he does at least have a mental edge in knowing he can hit Khan hard enough to stop him in his tracks.
The win four years ago at the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino helped lift Garcia's profile. He successfully defended his two belts four times at light welterweight before making the move up to the 147-pound division.
Now, Garcia requires a big fight at welterweight, as Lou Catalano of the Queensbury Rules pointed out in the Guardian:
"Garcia sparked Amir Khan, before defeating the murderous-punching Lucas Matthysse in 2013. He was the king at 140lbs. Since then, he’s become one of the most despised fighters in the sport. He was gifted a decision against Mauricio Herrera. Then he ruined Salka, a lightweight he had no business fighting. Next, another questionable decision victory over Lamont Peterson, followed by another easy victory over the completely shot Paulie Malignaggi. Not exactly a murderer’s row. Not exactly a career-building resume. But this isn’t all on Garcia.
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Garcia needs a name of note to fight, while Khan just needs to get back in the ring. It's the perfect combination with a world title thrown in to boot.
The not-so-shy Angel Garcia believes going over old ground makes no sense, per Mitch Abramson of RingTV.com: "Why would we fight Khan? There are bigger names out there right now. Khan had his time. He made a lot of money in boxing. I don’t know why he stood around waiting for Floyd (Mayweather) to fight. It never happened. I don’t see (this fight) taking place."
The WBC's order, however, might leave the Garcia family with no other option but to revisit the past.
As for Khan, the fight with Brook is not going to be taken off the table—the appetite to see it happen wouldn't disappear even if both suffered losses—but the opportunity for a rematch with Garcia may not come around again.
What is most important of all is that the 29-year-old just gets back in the ring. As former world champion-turned-television pundit Johnny Nelson told Sky Sports: "Khan is an amazing fighter, but people will start forgetting that because of his lack of fighting over the past two years."
His detractors won't ever let Khan forget the knockouts he has suffered as a pro, but getting revenge on Garcia would right one of the wrongs and give some of his doubters food for thought.
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