Why Amir Khan Has Made the Right Move in Signing to Fight Canelo Alvarez
Wait. Hold on. Amir Khan is going to fight Saul "Canelo" Alvarez—are you sure? You do mean the Amir Khan and the Canelo Alvarez, right?
Tuesday’s announcement of a fight few people knew anything about (they may want to think of a better tagline than that for promotional purposes) caught the boxing world completely off guard.
In a sport where there are very few secrets, and in a time when the power of social media is so vast, there’s always a leak. Always.
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Yet, somehow, the two sides managed to prevent Canelo vs. Khan becoming public knowledge before the official announcement. Not even those normally in the know had any inclination of what was going down.
For that in itself, all parties involved deserve a great deal of praise.
Hats off to Golden Boy Promotions. They have worked previously with Khan, which made negotiations with the fighter and his team a little easier.
However, as explained by Mitch Abramson for the Ring magazine, Khan is now involved with Al Haymon, a man Golden Boy has filed an anti-trust lawsuit against to the tune of $300 million.
Still, Haymon deserves credit (no matter how much, or little, he was involved in talks). Premier Boxing Champions spokesman Tim Smith said, per Abramson: "This highlights what Al Haymon’s management model is all about—allowing fighters to have the freedom to make the best possible fights for their career and their financial gain."
Aside from the complexity of boxing politics, the bout is full of intrigue.
For Canelo, fighting Khan on May 7 is the best option available before a showdown against middleweight rival Gennady Golovkin later in the year.
Per Dan Rafael of ESPN.com, the reigning WBC middleweight champion had been considering Gabriel Rosado and Willie Monroe Jr. as his next opponent. Neither of those names was going to move the needle, though.
Khan, in contrast, brings an element of doubt about the outcome. He is still going to be the underdog—Odds Shark notes he started at an initial price of plus-240—but he’s an underdog with the potential to cause an upset.
And, unless Floyd Mayweather Jr. announces a comeback to the ring, the only fighter Canelo is not going to be favoured against is Golovkin.
As for Khan, fighting Canelo is a risk. However, it is a risk absolutely worth taking at this stage of his career.
It seemed the Englishman had two choices for his next move at welterweight—focus on a rematch with newly crowned WBC champion Danny Garcia or go back to the table and negotiate a deal with compatriot Kell Brook, the holder of the IBF title.
Instead, he found a third option. An option no one had the audacity to even consider previously—stepping up to meet Canelo, a fully fledged middleweight, on Cinco De Mayo weekend.
In confirming he will do just that, the Brit has taken a calculated gamble. The odds are against him, but the Bolton boxer has very little to lose and an awful lot to gain.
Khan desperately needed a big fight, too.
He was distinctly average in his last outing, against American Chris Algieri in May 2015.
As Bryan Armen Graham wrote in the Guardian: "It was a showcase fight designed to make him look good, ostensibly a launchpad for a September blockbuster with Floyd Mayweather Jr., but Khan was unexpectedly taken into deep waters by Algieri and forced to settle for a points win that felt profoundly underwhelming."
There was a dazzling display against Devon Alexander at the end of 2014, plus an absorbing battle in 2010 with Marcos Maidana that saw him somehow survive an onslaught in Round 10.
Yet, Khan was in danger of being best remembered for his losses, to Breidis Prescott, Lamont Peterson and Garcia, rather than his successes. He was just 17 when claiming an Olympic silver medal in 2004, but that obvious potential displayed in Athens still felt unfulfilled, despite his being a two-weight world champion.
Chasing first Mayweather and then Manny Pacquiao only resulted in dead ends, and yet Canelo—or at least the Mexican’s promoter, Oscar De La Hoya—came looking for him.
De La Hoya told Rafael: "I gave [Golden Boy vice president] Eric [Gomez] a call and told him we have to seriously think about Cinco de Mayo weekend for Canelo and I came up with the idea."
There are two red flags for Khan: his weight and his chin.
The bout has been contracted at 155 pounds. That’s below the middleweight limit of 160, yet the WBC strap will still be on the line.
For the challenger, it means jumping up two divisions. Khan stepped up to the 147-pound limit for the first time when he faced Julio Diaz in April 2013.
While an eight-pound difference may not sound like much, rehydration will likely see Alvarez come in considerably heavier than his foe when he steps between the ropes in Las Vegas.
Khan cannot just pile on the pounds to try to match up. Speed is his biggest asset, so adding weight won’t help in that regard.
But, as Boxing Science’s Danny Wilson told Boxing News, it's easier to move up than drop down: "Khan can be fuelled up for his training sessions and optimise fitness adaptations. If you are a boxer that struggles to make weight, you can imagine how good this will feel. Khan could gain a lot of confidence from this."
Movement and mobility will be the key for Khan, yet he cannot hope to avoid shots for 12 solid rounds. At some stage he will be tagged, and only then we will find out if the difference on the scales shows up.
The 29-year-old has been knocked out twice in his career. He was ruined by left hooks from Prescott (in 2008) and then Garcia (in 2012) when campaigning at lightweight and light welterweight, respectively.
Canelo has a career KO ratio of 67 per cent. He is a pressure fighter, but plenty have coped with his power. Mayweather, Shane Mosley, Austin Trout and, most recently, Miguel Cotto all took him the distance.
Money's majority-decision points victory over the Mexican in 2013 provides the blueprint for success, as Khan told Sky Sports News HQ (h/t Mike Patterson of Sky Sports):
"When Mayweather fought Alvarez he got him down to 152 pounds—a weight where he was struggling to make the fight weight —so the weight we are fighting at is giving him a couple of more pounds to feel comfortable.
He is going to be a little bit stronger going into this fight against me, but watching how Floyd Mayweather beat him; Floyd boxed him, was smart and he moved well - he wasn't standing there with him.
Obviously I am going to pick a few things out of that fight.
"
Tactics will be discussed at great length by all closer to the time.
What should be talked about now is how Khan—who has been criticised by many for the fights he wasn’t willing to take—has stood up to be counted.
Yes, he is going to be well paid for his work. Khan the businessman has to be pleased with that side of the deal.
Khan the boxer, meanwhile, could change his legacy over the course of 36 minutes. It is hard for anyone now to suggest he was ducking Brook when he's accepted a much larger task, in every sense of the word.
Many in the boxing industry revealed their admiration for King Khan on Twitter, including former opponent Paulie Malignaggi:
Even if he loses, Khan will not be short of offers.
As former world champion Johnny Nelson pointed out on Sky Sports, the bout with Brook isn’t suddenly going to disappear, even if The Special One has to move up in weight to make it happen: "Brook has to train really hard to get down to welterweight and it's always a worry so he could fight at middleweight easily. If Khan steps up to middleweight and puts himself in the position where Brook has to follow him, then he will. But don't think Brook can't make middleweight because, trust me, he can."
However, if Khan finds a way to win, he will have produced one of the biggest results in the history of British boxing. Even his biggest critics would then find it tough to gather up enough ammunition to knock him.
Perhaps, just perhaps, a surprise result could also tempt Mayweather to make a comeback. After all his talking in the media, Khan may get the fight he wanted through actions rather than words.
A Mayweather return is a fascinating subplot to a story that has got just about everyone in boxing buzzing. Roll on, May 7.
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