I made this post in another thread, thought i'd bring it in here for you bdman. Save you searching for it. I have a BSc in Biology, I understand it perfectly. His metabolism will alter at about 26, which he will not reach for 4 years. So currently his body will remain in a static state whee he'll maintain his weight and fat, muscle and water retention levels. So until his body his that shift, he's not "filling out". Any mass gain to his body will be synthetic; forced against his metabolism through any regiments his body is put through (ie. training). So for the time being his weight is in a homeostatic state. I disagree with Hopkins being a textbook fighter, due to the misuse of the word textbook imo. He knows every trick in the book and is a real master of all trades indeed, but given his unorthodox, spoiler and cagey style I don't think you can say he's textbook. Which implies he's a by the number by the letters fighter. Semantics mostlikely. Yeah, I watch from about his 10th fight I think, mostly the ITV Saturday night headlining affair. Even then he was linear and programmed; he lacked ring IQ, intellect and instinct, with a limited arsenal, rigid technique and very straight, simple movements. Yeah he did have a gung-ho approach, but I think that came from the aforementioned points.
Cotto adding 7 pounds improved his punch resistance considerably, why wouldn't Khan adding 5 help his some? Less dehydration means your brain bounces around in the skull less, meaning you're less likely to be concussed. Guys who are weight drained are much more likely to have KO and balance problems. Less changes in cranial and cochlear fluid should mean both better balance and better punch resistance. I'm not saying his chin will be great, but it should be a little better at 140; but then again, guys punch a little harder at 140. Also, whoever said Kotelnik can punch is full of it. Dude has just enough power to keep guys honest, and I don't think he landed more than 3 clean punches the entire Khan fight.
Ur an armchair boxer - ive been fighting as an amateur since i was 8 and im 25 now. dont tell me about little shitty technicalities u think are making or breaking his game. wat u think u are freddie dundee steward? and u telling me u know more about boxing than freddie? if he thawt khan was **** he wouldnt have taken him on. And back to the barrera fight - any expert can tellu that even if khan had fought barrera in 98 he would not have been able to touch him. Khans style was too much for him.. his power has eased up in his last few fight because he's been working on his defence - he has good power or he wouldnt have the KO stats that he has. U need power even to knock out journeymen.. Quick question - what do u think of joe calzaghes punching style? bet ur tongue is so far up his arsehole u can taste his toothpaste :happy
It's true that Khan does sometimes come across as robotic. I want to see him be more relaxed and fluid in the ring -- when he punches he looks strangely stiff at times. He IS ridiculously fast, though, and I can see a definite improvement in his defensive work since he's been with Roach. He's getting his guard up to catch those hooks at last (he should really have been taught that before he even made his debut, but whatever) and he's looking more efficient in general, very sharp and compact work. He still has a way to go, though -- I want to see more body punching from him, and just generally better infighting work. Everyone knows that Khan can pick most people off from a distance using reach/speed/accuracy, so they all try to pressure and close the range. I'm sure Roach knows this, and so I hope he's teaching him how to deal with people up close -- how to shell up, adapt to rough tactics, get in very short punches to the gut before coming up to the head, clinching more and pushing people away to create space, etc. I also think Khan should jab and circle more...people accuse him of not planting his feet and arm punching, but when you have such a delicate chin it's not wise to be offensively minded. He has to use his strengths to get somewhere in the ring, namely speed of hands/feet, accuracy and workrate. Never seen Salita fight, but he IS the mando, so we can't complain.
I won the all ireland gold and four nations, and was considering turning pro, where-as you have CLEARLY either never boxedi n your life, or were quite terrible at it. Roach gets paid thousands a month to train Khan, Roach also said Khan hits like a light-middleweight.... that must be true because Roach says so... you have yet to mention anything about Khans technical flaws.. all you say is "he's fast and powerful" sorry mr 20 year boxing veteran but that is not enough on these forums. Calzaghe is technically brilliant, I used to think even I could alk through his punches, but then I sat and watched him a little harder and thought "No... this guy is VERY, VERY good..." Khan on the other hand I've seen since the olympics, every single fight, and while he has improved, he will never make a believer out of me. When Naseem Hamed made his debut, I thought he could go n to be great... but never have I thought this about Khan. Incidentally, Hamed was a trillion times more talented than Khan.
Khan has never KOd anyone, I have seen all of his fights, they were ALL TKOs, the Steve Gethin/ Gomez/ Steffy Bull etc. all quite terrible stoppages. Look at Khans highlights and you'll see a lot of boxers looking at the referee going "what the **** are you doing stopping this fight?"
This, I agree with. When I saw Khan against domestic opposition he looked decent, sometimes very good, but he showed so much vulnerability against people like Limond and Gomez that it worried me. I never thought of him as a future great. With Hamed, it was...wow. Some of the things he did with his speed and agility had my jaw hanging, and then you factor in the crushing power...he really had so much talent. A real shame about what happened to him.
Thats exactly what I said to a guy...as big headed and arrogant as Hamed was, he did make me go "WOW!!" sometimes, Khan is just what Limonds trainer said he was "a very average boxer with tremendous handspeed".
khan has all the skill's. he didn't seem to want to hurt kotelnik he was just trying to outpoint him.hopefully he open's up more against salita. and when he actually has salita backed up sustain an attack.he didnt do that against kotelnik. khan will win a very 1 sided fight by late stoppage
Yeah I tip Khan to win this one quite easily, Salita can best be described as a popular club fighter. Could very well stop him, but he won't lay him flat.