On Saturday night Amir “King Khan” Khan surprised the world (myself included) when he went six rounds (almost a complete six) with Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. Not only did he last that long, he looked good doing so. While Canelo received a tremendous amount of backlash from the second that the fight was announced (and is still receiving backlash well after the fight), the criticism that Canelo is receiving by far overshadows the praise that Khan deserves. Khan went in a big underdog and for good reason. While fighting in the lower weight divisions he was knocked out not once, but twice and it wasn’t pretty. Aside from the stoppage losses Khan has been hurt bad and been knocked down on occasion. His ability to absorb punches to the chin have plagued him throughout his career so it came as a shock to myself that he was able to absorb some of the punches Canelo landed on him.
Aside from the shots Khan was able to absorb, his speed carried up well in weight. He was able to land several shots on Canelo and he was able to box and use his ring intelligence well. Yes, Canelo was able to catch up and outsmart/outbox Khan but Khan was able to hold his own and that’s saying a lot considering all of the odds that were against him.
Did it come as a surprise that he got knocked the f*ck out? No. I though he wouldn’t make it out of the second round but he proved me and a lot of other boxing fans/members of the media wrong. He deserves praise and respect for his effort and stepping up to fight bigger fighters while other fighters want to take the easy route in their careers. When he goes back down to 147 pounds he should do very well against the top fighters unless the Canelo knockout took a lot out of him.
