Amir Khan is definitely not the most popular choice among boxing fans to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr. next, but his trainer, Virgil Hunter, believes those antagonists are sleeping on the man with the answer to Floyd's impenetrable defense.
While Mayweather has been dominating larger, more powerful opponents in his last several fights, Hunter thinks the contrast Khan offers from that style may give Mayweather fits.
"I've seen him [Khan] do things that can kind of just leave you spellbound that he hasn't even shown in a fight yet," Hunter said. Hunter compared Khan's skill level to that of Andre Ward, the consensus No. 2 fighter pound-for-pound in the world. "I always say Andre Ward is at about 80 percent of what he's going to be, and he still has that upside. Well Amir still has that upside also, where there's so much room to get better."
Khan has been derided as "undeserving" of such a major fight, after suffering a knockout loss to Danny Garcia, who has seemingly been passed over by "The Money Team," in addition to being floored several times by various fighters. Ironically, though, Marcos Maidana's emerged as a candidate to face Mayweather, and "El Chino" has been beaten by Khan before.
Hunter thinks a major mistake being made by critics is thinking they've seen all Khan has to offer. "Amir still has a learning curve," Hunter said. "He still has an upside for development, physically and mentally. So when you have a young fighter like that, on any given night he can take it to another level that you never saw before.
"People are sort of writing him off at the levels they've seen him at, and not the levels that he's going to."
As far as Khan's previous competition, Hunter makes the case that his big performances are being dismissed. Khan owns knockout wins over Paulie Malignaggi and Zab Judah, and although his most recent opponent Julio Diaz is often scoffed at, Hunter notes he fought current IFB titleholder Shawn Porter to a draw.
"He was handing Danny [Garcia] a sound defeat," Hunter said of his fight against the undefeated Garcia. Khan's loss to Lamont Peterson was also shrouded in controversy surrounding two point deductions for shoving, a rarity in boxing. Peterson won the fight by a point on two cards in his hometown of Washington D.C.
© Copyright 2024 Sports World News, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
