good post and I'm not sucking up or anything but you're one of the best posters on the forum as you know your stuff and don't just talk shite pretending to be an expert like some of the (strangely) highly rated posters on here. faisal - you say Thaxton is a monster...is that not going over the top? if he's that good how come he's not even a household name? MR Kool - yeah they don't give olympic medals away...but look how henpecking and running for 3x2 rounds is different from the pro game. 2 words....Fraudley Harrison.
This aint gonna happen, Khan aint ready for Thaxton yet and Frank knows it. Thats why before Rees won his title Frank Warren was saying Khan wouldnt be a world champ by 21. Also Warren got a record of having his top British prospects avoid other top British prospects. Look at Hattons early record and you'll see that.
thaxton is a rugid world class fighter his record speaks for itself,if amir beats him i'll give him props. thaxton hasnt achieved anything significant to be recognised as a household name, if you look back at older threads you'll see why khan is such a recognised figure in england.
Jono lost the best years of his career to injury didnt he. He gave Hatton his toughest fight (bar collazo). To be honest if it was a neutral fight, or had Thaxton been the "home" fighter Hatton would have been stopped IMO. Thaxton is a big puncher at the weight, its probably feasible he's a world top 10 lightweight tbh. The only question is how much he's slowing down now he's in the autumn of his career, saying that his performance against meager was top notch.
Khan still has a defence to make and then maybe Early. Thaxton is a good two fights away, one of them loseable.
Hell, Floyd Mayweather isn't even a household name, but we all know how good he is. The most popular fighters are normally the ones who capture the public's imagination with their charisma/marketing, like Naseem Hamed's theatrics, Tyson's brutality, Eubank's eccentric personality, Khan's olympic journey at such a young age, etc.
although i'd favour thaxton if this fight happened within the next year, i don't think its a foregone conclusion. thaxton might be the hardest hitter of the current domestic lightweights and also very experienced but it took him a while to catch up with lawton in his last fight because of the size difference. i recall he seemed to be struggling to land on lawton early on as well....lawtons about the same size as khan but slower offensively (although probably a better chin!) btw for those who question khans handpicked feather-fisted opposition to date, have a look at the british lightweights around at the moment and try finding a few with better than 50% ko ratio. i think gomez and thaxton are the only ones...
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i agree with you completely...i've said before that british prospects should be getting in the ring with durable american or mexican journeymen as they are a level above the british equivalent. but i'm guessing that any fight involving khan from now will involve a title...i.e. defence of his commonwealth or challenge for another title.