Is Khan's inability to counterpunch due to his chin, psychological or lack of ability

I've felt that bad footwork and positioning with too much emphasis on attack plays a big part in the point you're making.

 

Mindset and early training. Some fighters also put it all together better. Maybe Khan will with experience. Khan has fast hands but he does not have great boxing instinct like say a Mike McCallum had. Mike's great skills was his boxing instinct to know when to turn it on and how to take over and what style to use. Khan has speed, but doesn't have much of a gameplan or patience. Like I said before, Khan reminds me of Jermaine Taylor. Fast hands but no gameplan. Since Bernard sat back and boxed, Jermaine didn't have to do anything but use his fast jab and land his right occassionally to keep Bernard cautious.

 

Lack of ability and the way he's fought for years.

 

Khan seems happy in either defense or attack mode.

When he's attacking he puts punches together quite well, but when he's defending he goes into a shell rather than trying to turn his oppenents attacks against them.

Because this method has worked for him (and he believes he beat Peterson) he won't change.

I don't believe it's lack of ability, I believe it's a case of him thinking if it isn't broke don't fix it. Unfortunately for him it means he will never be considered great amongst boxing purists but fighters can change.

 

I agree with this. Also, he's never really been taught to counterpunch. Or if he has, he's just not very good at it. He fights in one mode throughout - attack the other person before he attacks me, and move out of the way. He's never really had the sense of setting people up and making them walk on to anything. That could partly be due to his chin. He's probably not as confident at inviting danger as most counterpunchers are.

 

Good fighters (or in Hopkins' case - great fighters) don't necessarily make good trainers.

 

Khan is an aggressive fighter at heart. (This was clear even during his days in the Olympics.) People need to understand that Roach actually served to make Khan into more of a 'boxer' type, which was a smart move -- he got Khan to use his jab more, to move consistently, and to attack in quick bursts before backing away again in a shell. In the pre-Roach days, Khan was more aggressive, with an even leakier defence and more of a 'overwhelm the opponent with punches rather than box them' mindset.

Counterpunchers usually tend to be defensively minded guys. That's not Khan's mindset in the ring -- even though Roach has shaped him into more of a boxer, Khan is still more focused on attacking.

 

To be fair, he has made significant improvements since joining the Wild Card. Just compare a pre-Roach version - the one that was getting decked by Gomez and Prescott - to the one now that was only derailed under controversial circumstances in the home town of a cheater. There's a huge gulf of difference. Sure, he still has his flaws, but we musn't forget how much he's developed in a short space of time, too.

But with that said, you are right, he must work on the things you've mentioned. In the Peterson fight, I was disappointed to see him repeat the same mistakes/habits he was making a year ago against Maidana - a fight which you expect someone like him (with the trainer he has) to have learned from.