Khan he change?

A friend of mine bumped into Freddie Roach, former trainer of Amir Khan, at JFK airport a few months ago. During their conversation, Roach hit the nail on the head when he explained Khan’s problem:  “he stays in the pocket too long”. Fans of the NFL will know that quarterbacks who hang around in the pocket tend to end up flat on their backs – precisely what has happened to Khan on more than one occasion.  He now has a new trainer, Virgil Hill, and claims to have developed a more defensive style, which he plans to display in Los Angeles on Saturday night.  He probably won't be troubled by his opponent Carlos Molina, a lightweight stepping up a division who is four inches shorter than Khan and doesn't carry much of a punch. Should he win that fight (and if he doesn’t he may as well retire), the caliber of opponent Khan will need to face in the future will necessitate the kind of defensive skills which have generally been lacking amongst British fighters. New style or not, what is certain is that eventually he will take one on the chin – even the greats get hit sometimes. And as I’ve stated before, it’s rare for any fighter to be able to add muscle to that particular part of their anatomy.

Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin

It’s been a long-held maxim in boxing that it’s impossible to add muscle to the chin. In other words, fighters who have a glass-jaw are stuck with this limitation for their entire (often relatively short) careers. However, two boxers are beginning to make me question the validity of this notion. I saw Wladimir Klitschko get brutally knocked out in 2003 and 2004, and to be quite frank, he looked like a bum. Having barely survived three knockdowns against Samuel Peter in 2005, Klitschko has now won 11 world title fights in a row. I was sure if David Haye caught him on the chin, Klitschko would fall, but Haye definitely landed at least two big right hands and Klitschko didn’t crumble. Admittedly, he didn’t land a full Hayemaker (the broken toe prevented that), and perhaps the defensive style Klitschko has adopted since those mid-career wobbles, has successfully prevented anyone from properly testing his chin. Certainly the current paucity of the heavyweight division has helped in this regard. But what about Amir Khan? How has he gone from having the most suspect chin in British boxing to being on the verge of dominating the 140 pound division (with talk of moving up to welterweight and challenging the likes of Floyd Mayweather)? Every time these fighters step into the ring – especially against dangerous punchers – I’ll still be thinking ‘maybe this time’. But how many world championship defences must a fighter make before one has to stop considering him ‘chinny’?

Yes Khan do?

Great victory by Amir Khan on Saturday. The lad appears to have defied the old boxing adage, and actually added muscle to his chin. We should find out in the next year just how good a fighter he really is, but the signs are starting to look promising. Despite the astonishing improvement in his chin, I still suspect he may remain susceptible to being caught cold at the beginning of a fight...

No Khan Do?

So the big question following his fight at the weekend – is Amir Khan chinny? The evidence so far would seem to suggest that he may well be. Perhaps even more worrying, he also appears to have the British fighter’s disease – a poor defence. One thing is certain – he’s nowhere near ready to face any of the big names in the lightweight division, e.g. Manny Pacquiao, Juan Manuel Marquez, Joel Casamayor. And, from the evidence so far, he might never be.