There is much speculation throughout the boxing community that Amir ‘King’ Khan is set to face Devon Alexander ‘The Great’. Speculation has been fueled by Alexander himself tweeting that, “We will be finalizing and signing the contracts in the next couple of weeks.” This would appear to be for Alexander’s IBF welterweight world title and would be Khan’s first outing as a welterweight. It is also being suggested that the fight is likely to take place in Dubai in December.
This seems an interesting choice of destination for a boxing match and is very surprising. It is normally presumed that this type of fight will be at one of the big venues in the U.S.A. It is intriguing for it to be held in Dubai and one would suspect that huge sums of money have been put up for it to be hosted there. I see it is a positive factor for boxing as it widens its fan-base and takes a top bout away from the usual countries and lets other people experience what is like to see 2 elite fighters face-off. This fight will be of extreme interest for many reasons. Firstly is will be fascinating to see how Khan copes up at welterweight, having moved from light-welterweight as Alexander has done previously as well. There have been suggestions that Amir has been struggling to keep his body-weight down to the light-welterweight limit and that he has been losing strength and stamina as a result. This could mean that Khan will be a greater threat up at welterweight and would be able to handle the shots better with a thicker physique.
Alexander is fresh from a convincing win over another British fighter Lee ‘Lights-out’ Purdy who seemed to be fighting at a level above what he can handle. Purdy is a domestic level fighter who was given a last-minute shot at the title and jumped at the opportunity. Purdy struggled to make the weight for the fight having had such little notice to prepare and came into the fight drained and feeling weak. These factors mean that it is extremely difficult to analyze how impressive a performance it was by Alexander as Purdy is not good enough to fight for a world title even in his best possible shape. Alexander also hurt his hand during the fight and had to fight with just one hand for most of it so presumably it is not a major issue and will be fine for the fight at the end of the year.
Amir Khan is in the process of rebuilding his career following some disappointing performances. He has lost to Lamont Peterson and Danny Garcia as of late. The fight against Peterson I personally scored as a narrow points win for Khan and was surrounded in controversy with points taken away for pushing, interference with judges score-cards, and subsequent failed drugs tests on the part of Peterson. The Loss to Danny Garcia was a crushing one with a brutal knock-out. Some were suggesting that Khan should retire at the time due to the manner of the defeat. I personally felt that such calls were ridiculous with Khan being so young and having such ability. Since this crushing defeat, Khan has swapped trainers from Freddie Roach to Virgil Hunter. Hunter is also the trainer of many analysts’ second best pound for pound fighter and Carl Froch victor Andre Ward. Hunter is working with Khan to try and develop his defensive skills. He has put this work into practice slightly against boxers Carlos Molina and Julio Diaz. Diaz came into the fight very determined to win and show how good he is as a former world champion. Khan was really stretched by Diaz and only just came through the fight successfully. Hunter needs to work more with Amir for the defensive technique to become more natural meaning that Khan can use his natural hand-speed to out-class opponents without being exposed and left vulnerable to big shots.
I am really excited for this fight between 2 top quality boxers in Khan and Alexander. Khan is huge entertainment with what some label a glass chin. I disagree that Khan has a poor chin and use the fight with noted puncher Marcos Maidana as evidence. Khan was hit with Maidana’s best shots and still won. It was a fantastic fight like many of Khan’s are. Khan’s chin is fine it is just that he is defensively fragile so he gets exposed too often to big punches.
I predict a Khan victory over Alexander on a very close, probably split-points decision. Khan and Alexander are likely to try and use similar tactics with a highly technical strategy. Both are in-and-out boxers who look to use combinations and get back out again. Khan has the issue of once he gets hit trying to stand toe-to-toe with the opponent and almost being too brave for his own good. Khan will at some point look to stand in the middle of the ring and exchange blows as he has a fighter’s instinct and it comes naturally to him to do so. I don’t however see Alexander as a big enough puncher to knock-out Khan and that will encourage Amir that he can win.
This fight also seems to be a sort of final eliminator to face pound for pound king Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather sometime next year if he comes through his fight with Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez in September. This is a huge incentive for both fighters as it brings a huge amount of media coverage and money. Whoever wins will enter the ring as a big underdog against Mayweather but nevertheless will be good to watch. I personally think it will be Khan who goes on to fight Mayweather but it will be close and could so easily be Alexander who wins.
Khan is a world-class fighter who is fantastic to watch and it is his time to regain a world title again and show everyone just how big a talent he is!
