I concur. that is why its so frustrating that major aspects he requires in boxing are being overlooked. Freddie has just polished and enhanced what Khan already had. Now Khan needs to learn new skills in his arsenal and regrettably I feel the only way he will gwt that is with another trainer
I agree jack. Im a big khan fan but he doesn't have the ring iq and poise to be elite, despite his many physical assets. For example the Peterson fight. Having already been deducted a point and receiving countless warnings, in a close fight he continued to push in round 12. TWAT. Its just far too easy to drag him into a brawl. It makes for compelling viewing but not good for him. He needs to be a lot more economical with his movement he bounces around too much. And he completely loses his head when hit. That sort of thing is hard to eradicate
Interesting that you mention this, because I was reading an interview from Khan a few weeks ago, and he was saying something about how he doesn't actually remember what happens in the rounds. He goes in there and pretty much fights on instinct. It makes sense when you watch how he fights -- apparently Peterson called him an 'energy' fighter, always hopping around and throwing bunches of punches. When you let him do that it's fine, but when you take the fight to him and start disrupting that rhythm he doesn't seem to know what to do. Peterson seems like more of a cerebral fighter. (He adapted by the end of round 2.) It makes sense that his favourite boxer is Marquez, who is one of the best examples of a currently active intelligent fighter. Khan and Pac rely more on instincts and energy, and while this works well against some guys it puts them in tricky positions against other fighters.
for a long time i along with many posters here have been saying a decent close range and pressure fighter would beat khan. we usually got maidana thrown in our faces. these khantards had no idea that maidana was just a brawler who duked it out in the middle of the ring, he wasnt a pressure fighter, he had no idea what to do when khan was against the ropes.
I dont think you can blame Freddie Roach for this he knows what kind of fighter Khan is and made him better at using what he has, you cant teach a square to be a circle, he got khan far, from struggling with domestic british fighters such as michael gomez and willie limond (yes i know americans, who?) to beating kotelnik, maidana and judah.
Yeah, I agree, mate. Really, how many times should a fighter be warned about something?! At most, you'll see, what, 15 warnings? And yet Khan received those 15 warnings after about 5 rounds and continued to push Peterson. Words like "unintelligent" or "stupid" are thrown around as insults and I don't mean them that way when I say this, but that was such a stupid thing to continuously do. That shows a lack of general intelligence. It's a shame though because Khan could be an unbelievably good fighter. However, he'll be dragged into these types of fights until he retires and I think he'll make the same mistakes over and over again.
Khan is at least as smart as James Toney. So that shouldnt be a factor of him being an elite fighter.
Good post, mate :good I didn't know about that Khan interview but it makes a lot of sense, yeah. That's why when Khan is completely dominant, he'll look great because the things he's been taught will be reflected in the way he performs. However, under any sort of pressure, he'll always start running, pushing, covering up and throwing pitty pat combinations because that's the way he naturally fights. Khan's strengths, his speed of hand and foot, could possibly make this even worse. If he was a slow fighter, he wouldn't be cursed by such a frenetic style but because of his physical gifts, it forces him to fight in such a reckless way. Give a driver an old Ford and he'll hit every corner perfectly on a track but give him a Ferrari and he'll go a lot faster but it'll be wild and reckless. That's the issue Khan has. He's relies on his speed too much, to be a smart, calculated boxer unlike Mayweather, Leonard or Ali, for example.
Highlighted this in past, this is the single biggest obstacle to preventing all the other defects from being corrected. Notice in the padwork with Freddie, he had Khan rolling under & out, pivoting off the front foot to create the angle and really digging in left hooks to the body. Would certainly been more effective close in against Peterson than running across the ring & Freddie also told him to throw the uppercut but Khan did neither the entire fight. The thing is the first routine was practised so frequently, they rehearsed the same sequence in all their public sessions but Khan just reverted to type as soon as Peterson applied any pressure at all. He lacks the intelligence to learn from his mistakes & this is why Peterson will win the rematch as well.
I think he is a smart fighter, but I think this was just a case of him letting his alligator mouth over ride his humming bird ass. He and his camp where so focused on fighting and beating Floyd, that they forgot they had a hungry fighter in front of them out to prove something. He and team kahn thought, Lamount was going to lay down, in his own home town no doubt, big mistake on Kahn's teams part, not to mention arrogant .. Lets not forget Kahn is muslim, and he was stating he going to KO an American fighter at the state capitol !! American still have bad feel for the muslim religion with all of that being said Lamont just could not afford to allow a muslim fighter KO him in the state capitol 3 month after the anniversary of 9/11. This all adds up to kahn severely under estimated Peterson and Kahn paid for it . long story short "Arrogance" Kahn trying to be a better version of Floyd is not working for him.
He made some major strides against Maidana IMO and executed a perfect gameplan against Judah. He just wasnt prepared for what Lamont brought and paid the price. Some of this has to fall on Roach as does the lack of urgency from him in between rounds. Khan will learn from this and win a few more titles before calling it a day.