Canelo Alvarez vs. Amir Khan: Head-to-Toe Breakdown of Both Fighters
In the boxing equivalent of the bolt from the blue, Golden Boy Promotions founder Oscar De La Hoya announced via his official Twitter feed on Tuesday afternoon that his star pupil and budding superstar Saul "Canelo" Alvarez will defend his middleweight championship against Amir Khan May 7 on HBO pay-per-view.
You could actually hear the sounds as the collective jaws of boxing fandom and media hit the floor. This fight came together suddenly and with little-to-no warning that it was even a possibility, much less close to being finalized.
Canelo and Khan will meet at a catchweight of 155 pounds with the cinnamon-haired Mexican's WBC, lineal and the Ring middleweight titles up for grabs. That's interesting, to say the least, given that Khan, a former titlist at 140 pounds, has never weighed more than 147 pounds for a fight.
The questions are innumerable at this time, especially given that De La Hoya was able to make the fight with Khan's manager Al Haymon, whom his company has a pending $300 million dollar lawsuit against.
You'll read enough words on that subject to make your eyes bleed over the next several days and weeks, so we'll just take a look at the fight and the fighters.
Here is your complete head-to-toe breakdown of Canelo vs. Khan for the middleweight championship.
Fight Info
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Main Event: Canelo Alvarez vs. Amir Khan; 12 rounds for Canelo's WBC Middleweight Championship
Where: TBD, but rumored to be the new 20,000-seat T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas that is slated to open in April, per Dan Rafael of ESPN.com
When: May 7, 2016
TV: HBO Pay-Per-View
The Fighters
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| Canelo Alvarez | Amir Khan | |
| Record | 46-1-1, 32 KO | 31-3, 19 KO |
| Age | 25 | 29 |
| Height | 5'9" | 5'8 ½" |
| Weight | 155 (last fight) | 147 (last fight) |
| Reach | 70 ½" | 71" |
| Stance | Orthodox | Orthodox |
| Hometown | Jalisco, Mexico | Bolton, Lancashire, United Kingdom |
| Rounds | 326 | 203 |
| Last Fight | UD 12 Miguel Cotto (11/21/15) | UD 12 Chris Algieri (5/29/15) |
All stats and information per BoxRec.com.
What You Need to Know
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Canelo
Canelo has rapidly established himself as one of the sport's premier attractions with his take-on-all-comers attitude. He's unafraid of big-time challenges against fighters whom many in his position would avoid, and that's allowed him to seize the mantle as boxing-crazed Mexico's most popular fighter.
He jumped back across the network divide last year, signing an exclusive multi-fight contract with HBO and rewarding its investment with a scintillating knockout of James Kirkland last March and a title-winning effort against Miguel Cotto last November.
Canelo is on a collision course with unified middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin. The pair will hopefully meet in the fall, assuming neither loses his interim contest, in one of boxing's biggest fights of the year.
Khan
You have to hand it to Khan. He looked desperate and just plain crazy at times, pining on social media for fights with Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao, often looking like one of those trolls who spend their days harassing people on Internet message boards.
A lot of people had a lot of unpleasant things to say about him (much of it fair), but you need to give credit where it's due. When presented with the opportunity for a significant fight, one that most fans and experts probably won't give him a realistic shot of winning, the Brit reached for the ring and dared to be great.
Khan will return to HBO and Golden Boy Promotions (for just this fight and a potential rematch, if necessary), which is an interesting development. He spent much of his career fighting for that outfit before he became a promotional free agent shortly after GBP settled with ex-CEO Richard Schaefer, jettisoning much of its talent to Haymon.
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Boxing Ability
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Canelo
Canelo has come a long way in his overall boxing game over the past couple of years. He's successfully honed his many strengths while masking or improving some of his weaknesses.
Like most Mexican bangers, he prefers the fight on the inside. He has a devastating lead hook to the body, which he uses to open up his man so he can climb the ladder with big power shots.
Canelo has been criticized as fighting a bit flat-footed in the past, but he's improved that in recent fights, becoming more comfortable at medium and long range while moving his opponents into advantageous positions where he can execute his offense.
Khan
Khan has three enormous strengths in his game. First, his hands and feet are probably the fastest in the sport. Second, he has great ring vision, knowing precisely where to pinpoint his punches. And third, he's a tremendous natural athlete.
Like Canelo, he has refined his game in recent fights. Virgil Hunter has helped him become more comfortable in the ring, with Khan ripping quick combos and then dipping out before an opponent can answer.
Khan likes to dictate the pace and limit his opponent's ability to get off when the fight gets too close for comfort. That's an important wrinkle for a fighter who suffered a pair of upset knockout setbacks, and it'll be crucial against the physically imposing Canelo.
Advantage
Let's go against the grain here and give Khan the nod. He's more technically skilled and has the ability to stick and move from the outside, which is something that has frustrated Canelo in the past. Plus, the Brit's advantage in reach could at least help him remain competitive, so long as he doesn't allow Alvarez to cut off the ring.
Power
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Canelo
Canelo is easily the most physically strong fighter Khan will ever have tangoed with inside the ring. He has tremendous natural power and has had the time to acclimate to fighting full time at 155 pounds, which, from this point onward, we'll refer to as "Caneloweight."
He can knock you out with one humongous shot that lands clean (just ask James Kirkland, if he's awake yet) or overwhelm you with a swarming attack that changes levels and brings the pain to virtually every hittable part of your body.
Canelo's ability to be smarter, and pick his spots better, has allowed him to become a sharper fighter, laser guiding his shots to the target and drastically increasing their concussive force.
Khan
You'd think that Khan doesn't have huge power by looking at his knockout numbers, but that's why looks can often be deceiving in this game. He's not a huge puncher by any means, but he maximizes what power he has with smart placement and other natural advantages.
Khan's speed (as we discussed earlier) is top-notch. His punches are sharp, crisp and land where intended, giving him a sort of sneaky-fast power that at least gives his opponents something to think about while going on the attack.
He's stopped 19 foes in 31 wins, but he hasn't knocked out a foe since woefully overmatched punching bag Carlos Molina called it quits between rounds of a get-healthy fight in 2012.
Advantage
Canelo, and it's not close. He has the heavier hands by far.
Defense
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Canelo
It's been something of a tale of two fights for Canelo recently.
Against Kirkland, a crude slugger, Canelo showed absolutely no fear and jumped in there guns blazing without fear of his foe's potentially significant and damaging return fire. That gambit worked out just fine, though Canelo was more elusive and mobile against Cotto, perhaps showing greater respect for his wily, rugged opponent.
Canelo isn't a bad defensive fighter, but he sometimes lets that part of his game slip in order to emphasize his offensive strengths. He's not likely to fear what comes his way from Khan, a slicker fighter who probably can't hurt him, and will respond accordingly.
Khan
Khan has become much more defensively aware under the tutelage of Hunter, which is a good thing for his long-term health and ability to continue plying his trade at the top level.
His style has become a tad more boring in his more recent fights, with the fighter preferring to grab and hold when the action takes him out of his comfort zone. His ability to do that against the stronger, more physical Canelo, who can outmuscle him on the inside, is a huge question mark.
Khan had a bad tendency earlier in his career to let his defense and intelligence slip when he got hurt. Rather than tie up and survive, going into a defensive shell, he let his heart get the better of him and paid the price. That would be disaster here.
Advantage
Khan's defensive strengths are his movement and new willingness to hold on when he gets caught out of position. He could use the former against Canelo, who has struggled in the past to cut off the ring, but the latter could provide him with a bunch of difficulty. Based on past experience, Khan could have an edge here, but executing and making good on it remains a whole different question.
Game Plan
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Canelo
It's pretty simple for Canelo, who figures to be the larger, more physically strong fighter on May 7.
He needs to cut off the ring and attack Khan, making his power and aggressiveness the dominant factors in the fight. On the inside he needs outmuscle his man, keep working with the free hand and try to prevent as many breaks from the referee as possible.
In short, keep the fight where his foe doesn't want to be.
Canelo can definitely hurt Khan, who has been hurt and stopped by far less powerful punchers in Danny Garcia and Breidis Prescott (in one round, no less). If he does, finishing shouldn't present too much of a problem.
Khan
The best chance (maybe only chance?) Khan has of scoring a rather monumental upset is if he's able to perfectly execute the blueprints used by Mayweather (who beat Canelo) and, to a lesser extent, Austin Trout and Erislandy Lara (who both lost close) to frustrate Canelo by sticking outside and not letting him cut off the ring.
That's going to require a constant vigilance, tremendous responsibility on the defensive end and awareness of time and space in the ring at all times. He needs to beat Canelo to the punch basically every time.
Khan doesn't want to put himself in any sort of position where Canelo can catch him clean. If he does, it could well be lights out, again.
Advantage
It's hard to see how Khan, who isn't as slick a boxer as Mayweather, can remain perfect for 36 minutes and not get caught with anything big. It looks like a Herculean effort and one that's bound to fail at some point.
The edge goes to Canelo, who has more ways to win and less that can go wrong.
Early Prediction
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You'd be crazy to pick against Canelo, especially at 155 pounds and against a fighter who is coming up in weight (two divisions above where he competes now) and is known to have chin issues.
Listen, Khan deserves a huge amount of credit for putting his money where his mouth is and jumping at the first really significant and attainable fight that came across his path, especially when it comes with these inherent risks and difficulties.
He's a massive underdog, even though the size disparity between Canelo and Khan, at least on paper, isn't as big as most think.
Khan actually has a slight reach advantage and is right there in terms of height. It's the weight issue and whether or not his body will handle the middleweight division against a young, strong, physical opponent who packs huge power.
It won't.
Khan might have some success early in the fight by evading the worst of what Canelo will bring to the party and beating him to the punch from the outside, but that won't last long.
Canelo will catch him with something, hurt him and roll right through him.
The ending will be almost as sudden as the fight announcement.
Canelo wins by knockout in the first half of the fight.
Prediction: Canelo TKO 5 Khan
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