Any who followed Amir Khan through the pro ranks up to that fight knew that he was as chinny as. In the Willie Limond fight he was very nearly stopped, and could have been. Against other journeyman he was dropped. His opponents on the way up, all had suspiciously a very low KO% suggesting they were hiding something. But it still came as a big suprise at the time, because everyone assumed this guy was cherry picked, and that Amir would get the win. In hindsight, the matchmakers got careless or just believed Amir had improved sufficiently to not get dropped and stopped. Prescott proved otherwise.
Big shock for the casual boxing fan because they bought in to the early Khan hype. Not a big surprise to boxing fans who has seen Khan dropped by Willie Limond and others before he faced Prescott. I actually had money on Prescott at 9/1, I wasn't surprised Khan lost by KO but I was surprised how quick and brutal it was.
I could be a little wide of the mark here, but was this not also Khans first Sky Box Office fight? He was on ITV at the start I remember.
Probably similar to Price-Thompson I. It was a big shock in terms of when and how it happened, but not necessarily that it did happen. Excellent point. While the Limond fight set off alarm bells, the bravery of a fighter's management team can be a real tell-tale sign before they get exposed under the bright lights. Khan's early career is littered with fighters with superficially nice records, but anemic KO percentages. Where a team is a lot more confident in a fighter's ability, they try to get a good mix of opponents with different styles and attributes to help their boy develop. It surely takes a lot of research to find fighters with (eg) 10-1 (0) records - it doesn't just happen by accident.
WAsnt campbells trainer part of khans team then. I cant remember his name atm, he was one of the cuban national coaches, also worked with rigo amongst others. Iirc he okd the matchmaking...he should of known all about prescott. jorge rubio..thats it, i was getting mind block.lol
