Amir Khan is in unfamiliar territory. He will be the underdog for the very first time in his professional career on the biggest platform he’s been on in boxing when he takes on Mexican superstar Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (46-1-1, 32KOs) on HBO PPV May 7 at the new T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Khan will be moving up two divisions to fight Canelo at a catchweight of 155 pounds for Alvarez’s WBC Middleweight strap on the line.
Amir Khan (31-3, 19KOs) has waited for years for this opportunity after spending much of the last two years chasing big money fights against Mayweather and Pacquiao to no avail and frustrating his fans even for the lack of activity in the ring while chasing these big fights to catapult him to a superstar level.
Khan has no desire for more showcase fights and shocked the industry when it was announced he would be Canelo’s dance partner for May. The fight was negotiated in secret, catching everyone by surprise, but the bout was received with mixed reactions. Some fans are excited about the creative matchup, others feel it’s a physical mismatch while others are irate at Canelo for picking on a welterweight and further creating doubt that he will fight Gennady Golovkin later this year, assuming he gets by Khan.
Khan however, after reviewing some tape on Canelo, jumped at the opportunity and feels he can pull off a great upset.
“I’m expecting the best Canelo Alvarez to go into this fight, because if I wasn’t, I’d be stupid,” stated Amir Khan. “This fight excites me, being the underdog and it always makes for a great story for the underdog to come out and win. I think this is one of them when the underdog is going to go into this big fight and win the fight.”
Khan knows he will have to be very discipline to win this fight and is not listening to the criticism that Canelo has received for some of his performances in the ring. In fact, Khan not only looks at Canelo as the bigger fighter but as a skilled fighter with good speed.
“He’s a very good fighter,” said Khan. He puts his punches well together, he’s got decent speed. A lot of people say he’s slow, but I don’t think he’s slow. He’s got decent speed; he’s very powerful and has a good knockout percentage. He has a lot of good things,” Khan said.
On paper, the odds are stacked against Khan, considering he’s the b side to Canelo and fighting for the very first time over 147 pounds, a division he only competed in for 5 fights and doesn’t have the best quality of wins at that weight.
After facing each other off countless times during the promotional press tour, both Amir Khan and Canelo Alvarez have been very respectful to one another. Khan insists, however, that once the gloves are on, there won’t be much respect.
“I’m going let my fist do the talking,” Khan stated. “At the moment, everything is fine we respect each other, but once the gloves are on, that’s it man.”
