Amir Khan: How do you rate him as a boxer?

I think he'll be world class if his chin holds up better at 147

 

Offensively he is a very good fighter. He has a bit of pop in his punches, speed, reach etc. Defensively he's pretty poor. He gets hit far too much and add to that he has possibly the worst chin in the sport today. Unfortunately that will probably be his downfall. Luckily for him he is with possibly the best trainer in the world right now, who should be able to sort his defence out and provide him with good gameplans for any fight he is involved in.

I can see him picking up a belt here and there if he is matched well. The Kotelnik fight is quite winnable for him, for example. But his chin is going to come back and bite him in the arse on more than one occasion, which will stop him from staying champ for too long or unifying any division.

 

I must admit that in his last two fights under Roach he has shown a lot of improvements. His jab has gotten better, he has a tighter defence and picked his punches really well.

Pre-Prescott he threw loads of punches in bunches but more than half of them would miss. His defence was also quite leaky.

Khan has never been an inside fighter and I think he still can't fight on the inside but with the style he has developed with Roach he should have no need to fight on the inside. As I said he's developing a quality jab and should be able to control fights at long range.

He throw's a much better 1-2 now as showed against Barrera but still his punch variation isn't all that. It's all straight down the middle and there isn't much in terms of hooks, uppercuts and bodyshots. I'm sure Roach will be looking to address that.

His hand speed is obviously a massive advantage which will help him land his punches and get out of harms way.

Having said all that he still has a **** chin and will sooner or later get tagged and KO'd .

 

I think that sums up my views entirely - although whilst I agree the Kotelnik fight is winnable, I don't think he'll win it.

 

World class with a flaw.

If he did not have the bad chin he would be beating the majority of the top 10 people in either the lightweight or light-welterweight divisions.

 

Does anybody here believe that when he moves up to L/Welter he may have a better chin ? He does look very bight for a Lightweight so i'm wondering whether he's being drained to make weight ?

 

I can't see his chin being any better, relatively speaking, at 140 than it is at 135.

 

khan's speed and athleticism make him look better then he is, he has some flaws, walks on to punches, little head or movement from the waist. but i think he'll improve as he goes on

Khan is what i describe as a fast brawler and guess what fighters i used to call that before they improved inmeasurebly....Pacquiao and Mosley

 

with careful matching he can go all the way...great speed and agility but no chin wont be a great champion though ...predicted a short rein

 

As most people know on here I am a big Khan fan on ESB, people might find my views on him clouded, bias, but I like to base my views with most factors taken into account and try giving a fair view.

Amir Khan for me = Speed, I love fighters with great hand speed over my years of watching boxing fighters I like

Tyson= Speed, Power
Roy Jones Jr= Speed, Power
Nassem Hamed= Speed, Power
Floyd Mayweather Jr= Speed, Underrated Power, Master Defence
Manny Pacquiao= Speed, work rate
Amir Khan= Speed

Amir Khan has great hand speed, it's a gift like power if you have both eg Tyson you can become unstoppable if used right. Khan does not have real KO power but I enjoy watching his fights just because of his speed.

Amir boxing wise is becoming a much improved fighter defence wise under Roach. Roach is helping him understand boxing in his head, the key to become a top boxer is to not let your heart control you inside the ring but you must use your boxing brain and think before you make your moves in the ring. Become a thinker, the aim of boxing is to hit and not be hit. Khan has to try and protect his weak chin most of the time, in doing so can become a great counter puncher. The key to counter punching is timing, blocking, moving, and most of all speed. Get in out fast and land your punch or combo before of opponent can react. Khan already has some nice combos, and his jab under Roach has improved a lot, its a ****ing fast jab and he should use it more to set himself up.

If Khan can master the art of counter punching, improves his all-round game, becomes a thinker eg like (Mayweather jr who plans each punch like a computer), his chin improves a bit with higher body weight 140-147 and age.

Under Roach he can become a great boxer, I am really waiting for his next fight to use how he handles Kotelnik, his alround game, how he fairs at 140 vs a guy his own size, will his chin hold up a bit better at 140?

After this fight can I tell people how far Khan can really go, the kid got the all the tools and the right trainer, if his chin can help him along the way Khan can go really far in boxing.

 

Not a great boxer. Forget about his rubbish chin for a second, he's still not half as great as people think on a technical level.

All he can throw is a jab and right hand. He has no hook, no uppercuts, no bodywork. His lack of variety is going to make him a very easy opponent to read at world class level. A good thinker is going to figure his **** out after 2 rounds.

His inside ability is appalling. He seems to panic whenever somebody is in close, he can't do any offensive work, and defensively he fails to see even the most obvious punches, particularly the left hook to the side of the head.

What I see is a good athlete and not a good boxer.

 

I think he has the variety in range of punches but he does not use it enough, I have seen some good upper cuts and body shots from him. You are right about his inside game, but under Roach we have not seen him go on the inside to see if he has improved in that area. The best thing for fighting on the inside is good sparing, that something i am sure Roach can get him at wild card.

 

The reason he does not use them is because judging on the way he fought against Barrera they are aiming to minimize any type of risk from his game after his tactics against Prescott. Therefore he's on his feet, trying to use the jab to keep a distance and throwing mostly straight punches with no leverage on them because he's throwing it from the arm and not the body. You have to lower your hands to throw a body shot, and when you throw a hook or an uppercut its damn difficult to be covering your chin at the same time.

The reasons for this are fairly obvious, but I didn't want to get into his chin once more because its stating the obvious at this point.

 

I think right now all we can do is speculate, the Barrera fight was supposed to be the fight to answer all critics but that failed. Me speculating about how good he is: i believe he has immense hand speed and good power but he hasn't proven anything on a world stage yet, this Kotelnik fight will tell us alot. His defence seems to be improving but seems very manufactured, doesn't seem to come naturally to him at all. The chin will definatly haunt him in the future, but the appeal of him winnig many fights without being KO'd will attract people to him, that is if he does so. Its very early in his career to start comparing him world wise but I think hes a great talent in British boxing!