Amir Khan : Can he become great?

In the grand scheme Khan is still not even hit his peak yet the guy will turn 25yrs old next month.

I really think we will see the best of Khan at 147 his more natural weight.

You can go right to the top if you believe in your self, nothing is impossible...

 

The comparison is that they are/were highly talented but both have suspect chins.

The suspect chin prevented Norris from reaching his full potential.

 

I cannot vote here becuase there are not enough options. Yes, Khan can become great but it is by no means a certainty. Only time will tell.

Firstly Khan has to clean up the 140 division including Bradley. Then Khan has to win a version of the 147 world crown ....... and beat somebody in the P4P top 10 (I do not count Bradley as a top P4P fighter). MAybe then we can start labelling Khan as a portentially great fighter.

 

Who, in the 140-147 division, is a top 10 p4p fighter (exluding Pac and May) that Khan could fight? And his task of cleaning 140 to become fully unfied champion, was rendered almost impossible by Bradley's ducking. Peterson will be his final fight before moving up to 147.

I think the criteria a lot of people have laid down for him in this thread, is unachievable, to be honest.

 

To become great, he will need to challenge himself more and more. That means that he has to face the bests in his division and if there are no more challengers, go up in weight and clean up that division and so on. I'm not sure if the can dominate the WW division. Much more go up to the next division and lord it over there. If he can do it, he is on his path to greatness.

 

Terrible Norris reached his potential, mate. He's a top 3 light middleweight of all time with only McCallum and Hearns competing against for the top spot.

Khan will be fortunate to have a Norris type of career. They're not even similar either, the only comparison is their dodgy whiskers, even then Norris was stopped by monster punchers who were very good fighters as well and not a club fighter like Prescott. It's a lazy comparison.

 

Khan be great in terms of providing great fights which attract public interest, but his skill level is currently not on that "great" level yet. Which is why im looking forward to him moving up in weight and fighting tougher challenges so we can see if he really is the real deal

 

Well Bradley may have ducked Khan, but now he is making noises that he now wants the fight. So hopefully the politics will get sorted and we'll get the only real fight at 140 that means anything. Also, in answer to your other point, Brasdley is considered by the Ring magazine as being top 10 P4P (heaven knows why .... personally I think Bradley is over-rated ... still good but not P4P material.

So if Khan beats Bradley he will have no more business at 140 .... then becoming a 2-weight champion should be the priority. After Khan gets a belt at 147 .... then a superfight with Floyd Mayweather could be on (I fully expect Floyd to beat Pacquaio if, or when, they meet). Now Mayweather has to fade at some point .... if Khan gets him at the right time then a Khan victory is not an outragous claim. After that - who can tell?

Remember that Khan is still pretty young in boxing terms ..... and no one knows what future matchups could be made or which superstars there are of tomorrow.

You cannot write Khans legacy off - no one can.

 

Yeah, I feel ya'.

It's just that I have reservations about Khan remaining at 140 and being able to secure a deal against Bradely who is now a Top Rank fighter. And even if he does fight Mayweather at the end of 2012, I highly doubt he [Mayweather] will have faded enough for Khan to take advantage of him. It’s just not a fight he can win, in my opinion.

But I sincerely hope he proves me wrong.

 

I suppose so mate ... I cant argue to much the other way. Floyd, in my honest opinion, is the best fighter I have seen since the old Leonard/Hearns/Hagler/Duran days. A Khan victory would suprise me big time ..... but I think I have seen bigger upsets.

 

If he wants to be known as an ATG he needs to hurry up lol. He wants to retire at 28 so it's a race against time haha.

 

he'll probably have a better career then naz and haye, but hes not going down as an ATG, Theres too many flaws in his fight style for him to be sucessful at the highest level.

 

norris was a beast, but he got stopped in the middle of his title reign by simon brown and was on wobbly legs by a mexican journeyman, i think getting caught in the middle of your career while your supposedly in your prime is far worse then getting caught early as a prospect at a weight where your boiling yourself down.
but i agree that norris was by far the superiorly skilled fighter. a prime terry norris would beat todays pacquiao, mayweather and martinez.

 

I agree that it is a lazy comparison

The point I was trying to make earlier in the thread is that I think Khans chin will prevent him from becoming an all time great.

I am a massive fan of Terry Norris and I agree with your Light Middleweight ranking. But I would not call him an all time great for being one of the best fighters in a fairly new weight class (early 60's I think). Terry's chin stopped him from moving to the more glamorous middleweight division.

What I said was I rate Norris higher than Khan and was only pointing out that I think Khans chin may present him with similar problems.

I was in no way trying to compare them style wise.

 

I kinda see what your saying now but honestly I think Khan is over his chin problems, his chin still aint the greatest but i don't think its below average, he's yet to be knocked down at 140.