roach has improved khan in so many departments

Spot on, I thought maybe I was the only person to notice that most of Khans punches were just landing on Kotelniks gloves. If judges are scoring on the basis of hitting gloves then it says it all.

 

Kotelnik also took a lot of leather to the face. His defence is very tight as usual, had he opened up more, he woulda taken far more and been much more damaged. A clinic really from Khan's point of view. He fought pretty much the perfect fight to get the result needed. Not all the top LWW's have the same tight defence as Kotelnik, and not all of them have 'never been put on the canvas' like Kotelnik, so Khan has a chance to do more damage with his speed in future.

 

Agreed. Having watched Kotelnik vs. Maidana, do these same jokers claim that Maidana has no punch power?

What a foolish argument. This really irritates me.

The fight against Kotelnik was not about KOing the guy, it was about outboxing him - being able to hit but not get hit.

Khan had a great performance for his first fight going up in weight.

Let the haters hate, some people simply can't give credit where it's due.

 

Khan CANNOT take a shot and does not hit anywhere near as hard as the muppets and he himself believes.That said he won clearly last night there can be no argument about that,how he fought last night is how he should have fought right at the start of his career a boxer mover rather than as a forward moving destroyer which he never was or shall ever be,last night he fought to his strengths.Iam a Freddie Roach fan Ive been telling everyone for the last 5 or 6 years how good a trainer he is.However he has done nothing remarkable in changing Khan,he has just done the obvious and got him fighting to his strengths,using speed and movement.

ESB member Stuey pointed out right at the begining of Khans career that his team had him fighting all wrong right from the off and that he should be more of boxer up on his toes and moving/using his natural attributes.Stuey was correct.

Congrats have to be given to Amir for his performance last night,he is now a Worlds champ,his rein will be short unless matched very softly/safely his lack of power and weak chin will see to this.

 

Those punches werent pitty-patt. They were just mostly jabs, Amir isn't going to have lost his strength overnight, I imagine he wasnt going to unload when Kotelnik closed up in his cocoon for 80% of each round. He played the smart game of keeping Kotelnik at bay with jabs, if they were really pitty-patt Im sure Kotelnik wouldve come out of that shell.

Oh and Kahn was going at a crazy workrate for 9 rounds. Proper Joe Calzaghe style.

If you cant give Kahn any credit for that fight, you're just a hater and not worth listening to.

 

I didn't expect khan to keep the punches going at the rate they did. definately built up some stamina.

 

Roach knows what he is doing.

 

Roach might have improved Khan but it is an improvement like Enzo Calzaghe did for Enzo Macarinelli waiting to be exploited. Khan is ill equipped to deal with the beasts of the division.

 

Yes and it is no mistake they chose Kotelnik.

 

Kotelnik chose khan, it was a voluntary defence. He saw the prescott fight even laughed about khans chin not being strong in the pre fight build up. I believe the reason they chose kotelnik was to make amir look good and build his PPV base. Either way khan is staying at 140 now where there is the serious talent to test and develop him further.

 

So khan already had the ability to block with a solid guard before he met roach and chose not to use it.:huh I personally believe the sparring at the wildcard has helped him alot, its taught him what to do when you get tagged and how to buy a few seconds.

Regarding his chin if kotelnik landed those half decent shots on him at 135 khan would have at least been put down. Look at the gomez knockdown, that was a cuffing shot at best from a domestic level SFW. Kotelnik despite having a low ko ratio is a natural LWW.

Regarding his power, what did you expect from khan after 3 camps with roach, that suddenly hes going to turn into Nigel Benn. It took roach years of working with manny to get him to the level he is at now.

 

Great point, People forget this is Kotelnik he was fighting, not a genuine top 10 LW! or even a genuine world champion.

However, he is progressing well and he can still improve. He can also hold onto his strap for another 5 years without fighting f all, with frank warren as his promotor while picking up millions and millions in revenue, and I have respect for that...unlike many.

 

Roach has simply taught Khan how to fight to his strengths and mask his weaknesses

Well, I say 'simply', but sometimes that simplicity is genius

Gomez had Khan pegged - world class fighter with world class weaknesses, or something along those lines

He was born with incredible innate hand speed and reflexes but an innate inability to take punishment... neither of those things will change anytime soon

I think if he continues to learn about fight strategy and intelligence under Roach he can go a long way. He is a good learner, with a good attitude, fair play to him... you simply can't knock what he's done since Prescott

 

Great point?

Nobody is forgetting anything. Kotelnik is a decent fighter and he's been in (and competitive) with good guys at the weight.

It's a fine win for Khan moving up.

 

That hasn't got much to do with what I said. Pac is a better physical talent however Khan could match his skill and fighting IQ.