Is Khan's inability to counterpunch due to his chin, psychological or lack of ability

The ****er doesn't keep still long enough to put himself in a position to come back with a counter.

 

Sure. There are plenty of areas Khan could improve on -- head movement, handling himself on the inside, footwork, countering as people come in, being more unpredictable with his offence (eg, alternating between his flurries and pinpoint, harder shots, or mixing work between the body and head more consistently), etc.

I guess if someone as aggressive as Pac could learn to mix in counters with his work (that right hook he loves to throw, as well as timing his opponent's jab with his straight left) then Khan could attempt it too. It would certainly help against people who pressure him like Peterson. Maybe he could turn his left-hook into the tool to discourage people who press forward.

 

To be fair to Khan you could see that is what he and Roach were working on for the upcoming fight with Peterson. He was looking to engineer some space by taking that half step back instead of pulling all the way out as though to come back with a counter. We dont know whether this would of conspired against him and Peterson would been able to get inside easier, or whether he would of pulled it off, but the jab is there to keep someone on the outside, when you counter punch you invite! someone into range, then it just depends on how well your able to pull the trigger on your counters, which can be made more difficult if the opponent is feinting before coming in because you wont be able to pick up his rhythm as easy, simply because he's changing his own rhythm of WHEN he attacks.

It would of made sense but its a risky strategy for someone who's shown in the past not to be adept at that particular skill, then again Khan has improved as Boxer under Roach as Outboxer said, so who knows.

 

I think the whole thing comes from his stiff upper body. He does some very basic counters after pulling back (jab-pull-jab/1-2), but his control of distance is his main form of defense. That isn't entirely bad in itself, but once that's penetrated, he's got nothin. If he were able to bend at the waist more fluidly, roll with punches, slip punches side to side, he'd be able to create opportunities to counter from the outside. His patience is also something that needs work, but I believe he'll develop it eventually. His technique is a bit inconsistent fight to fight, but he's learning and people forget how young he is. His fundamentals are solid. I still bank on him more than most young stars to be a future Hall of Famer.

 

Because he wants to operate from long range most of the time I think he's reluctant to let someone close that gap down, so when they do he wont shorten his punches and counter back, he would rather take a step back to get back to his required range, problem is then he's too far away to take advantage.

The point about patience is a good point to. He fights too much on anxiety.

 

What Roach was planning on using in the Peterson rematch seemed like a good control of distance mixing in counter-punches and shots to walk him into; he emphasized not bouncing around, but staying right there "in the zone" as Nacho would put it, and taking small back steps to come back with something.

 

He could actually make a very good counter puncher due to his straight shots and speed (but countering with at least a 1-2, single shots wouldn't work IMO). His footwork will most likely always let him down though.

It happens a lot when Khan tries to counter punch, he can never judge the distance correctly. He either moves too far out (unable to land the counter and take advantage of the situation), or he doesn't drive in far enough after making an opponent miss. The latter usually leaving him off balance and open to a counter himself (I was surprised Judah couldn't take advantage of this, but Khan was impressive in that bout, didn't make many mistakes).

If he can get that judge of distance right with experience, his straight shots, in and out, and counter punching will improve all-round IMO.

 

Ah, yeah, I'd forgotten about the clip where Roach talks about the strategy for the rematch:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgUDuL9NW9I[/ame]

I'd forgotten that he wanted Khan to work on counters and neater footwork. I thought it was interesting that he also wanted Khan to work on the 'up jab' to exploit Peterson's habit of coming in with his head low. It's a shame the rematch didn't happen, I would have been interested to see if Khan could have adapted in the ways Roach wanted.

 

Some great points being made here. Khan's poor counterpunching ability is one of my biggest qualms with his game, he could really do some damage with those fast, straight shots he throws. He also throws a neat little uppercut when he wants to, which he could theoretically use as a strong counter (Marquez-style)

 

I don't think he's going to change in any drastic way now.I've had plenty to say about Amir in the past but in the grand scheme of things,his style has served him fairly well,and seeing how pig headed he can be I doubt he'll be convinced otherwise.
Unless he gets the fight with Floyd I think he'll stick to what he feels has served him well.And that's only my guess at Amir's mindset,not what I think he should or shouldn't do.

 

Psychological because of his chin and a lack of ability. He lacks the ability since his psychology doesn't make him confident, and therefore train to control risk and counter back.

Amir is lacking in composure. He wants to hit and run. If you want to play counterpuncher, you need to be economical with your footwork to still leave you in range for firing back. Joe Louis, the most efficient boxer of all time, would back up to invite opponents to come in, so he can counter them and use their own momentum of coming forward to increase the impact of his shots.

The flashiness of using excess movement is often misinterpreted as good footwork. In truth, not controlling the estate by running around like a chicken on crack with its head chopped off works against the mover. Wasteful movements puts too much space between him and his opponent which puts him in the wrong distance to counter.

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To do that requires timing. Khan being a explosive as he is doesn't hurt people like you think he would, his timing is off. Amir is too defensive for obvious reason and would pull up that Joshua Clottey bull**** him and emmanuel go in when cornered, which is not the ideal guard to counter out of. Fighting in close quarters isn't exactly a range they teach at the wildcard. roach doesn't want Amir or emmanuel on the ropes ever, but if they happen to end up there having that flawed Joshua Clottey guard for some protection is better than nothing.

 

Partly due to his shitty head and lateral movement, partly due to his pitiful punch accuracy and selection, and mostly due to the fact that he knows he can't stand in the pocket long enough to try without a great risk of having his Fragile Glass Jaw shattered into a million shards of silica. He has no Chin. None.

 

atsch