The Return of the “King”: Amir Khan Makes A Statement With Stoppage of Carlos Molina

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    On Saturday night, Showtime featured a Jr. welterweight contest which pitted Amir “King” Khan (27-3, 19 knockouts) against the undefeated, and natural lightweight, Carlos Molina (17-1-1, 7 knockouts). To make a long story short, this fight could be described in two words: speed kills.

    Going into this fight, many questioned just where Khan’s mind is at. After two straight losses, a new trainer, and criticisms of having a “glass jaw”, Khan was facing a potential career making or breaking test in Carlos Molina. At the start of their scheduled twelve-round fight, all of the countless questions were answered, and all of the critics were silenced. In just three minutes, Khan was able to show that he’s a completely different fighter since the Garcia loss, under then trainer Freddie Roach. With Virgil Hunter taking the reins, Khan showed signs of a fighter who was not only more calculated in his attack, but well-rounded as well.

    For the ten rounds in which this fight took place, Khan ran an absolute clinic on the under-sized Molina. As Khan would string together beautiful combinations of hooks to the head and body of his opponent, Molina was left throwing wild power shots in an attempt to stop the relentless Khan. With Molina offering little, and in some rounds no resistance, his own corner could be heard threatening him with the idea of stopping the fight. In between the 8th and 9th rounds, Molina’s seemed to recognize the futility of their fighter’s efforts as they could be heard saying, “Don’t worry, there’s not many rounds left.”

    As one-sided as the fight may have been, one must recognize that Molina is still deserving of praise. As a natural lightweight fighter, Molina was willing to test himself and put up his undefeated fighter against the must larger Khan. Just the fact that Molina was able to stay standing before the ref felt forced to stop the fight speaks volumes for the young fighter’s toughness in seemingly hopeless odds.

    From this point forward, Khan is looking to gain back all of the hype he once had before his back-to-back losses. If Saturday night was any indicator of what the future holds for the new trainer/fighter combination of Virgil Hunger and Amir Khan, things are very good for the duo. The verdict is still out on whether Khan can reach the heights he once did with Freddie Roach, but after this fight with Molina, this looks like the start of a beautiful (professional) relationship.