By Vitali Shaposhnikov: After suffering his recent loss to Danny Garcia, Amir Khan has been on the bad end of media attention. In his numerous recent interviews, Khan has said too many things that he shouldn’t have, and has slowly dug a social hole for himself, a hole from which it will be very hard for him to climb out.
The most recent topic he had talked about a few weeks ago was the fact that he was not all that happy with the way Freddie Roach has been treating him, and how Freddie was not devoting the proper attention to Khan when Pacquiao’s fight was coming up.
Later, Freddie Roach stated that he had met with team Khan, and that everything was fine, as the topic of anyone getting fired was not a part of their meeting. Roach hinted that there might be a few changes as far as their training goes, but nothing too specific or major.
Now, it seems as though Khan might actually make that move, and let Freddie Roach go as his trainer. So who will replace Freddie if Khan decides to look elsewhere? Apparently, according to a report on ESPN (http://www.espn.co.uk/boxing/sport/story/163427.html), Khan has recently told Sky Sports that Wladimir Klitschko’s trainer Emanuel Steward has recently approached Khan in hopes of getting that job:
“I’ve had so many trainers approach me in the past week: Steward is the main one who’s approached me. Many trainers have said they can make me into a big, unbeatable fighter. It’s all about taking my time on this; it’s a big decision to make. I’m still with Freddie at the moment, but in a week’s time things might change. It’s all about seeing who might suit my style, who might help me on my offence, who might help me on my defense. I think I’m one of the best offensive fighters in the world; I just need to work on my defense. I really think to be one of the leading fighters, you need to have both. There are going to be a lot of things I’m going to change, but you will see a new Amir Khan.”
Again, Khan proclaimed himself to be one of the best offensive fighters in the world, which is not only cocky, but is socially punishable when he is unable to show it in the ring.
Can Steward mold Khan to a better fighter? Maybe he can and maybe he can’t, but overall, Roach failed at nothing with Amir. The fact that Khan is unable to mentally handle a loss is exactly the driving force behind his radical moves and ideas. Roach does well with all his fighters, thus when someone criticizes Roach for his ability to train and prepare his fighters, I tend to ignore.
Steward would definitely change things up, and impart his own way of training and preparing Khan for his future bouts, but how would Khan be different? If Amir doesn’t look good in his next fight, would he then go on yet another search for a new and better trainer?
Changing things up so fast is not a good idea and is more likely to backfire than prove to be beneficial. When things go sideways in life, we all look for a change and a quick fix, but why would one want to make a change to something that has thus far, out of many repetitions, failed only once? Amir himself is to blame for his loss to Garcia, and the only way to improve, is to sit down with Roach, point out the flaws, and go to work.
I hope to see Amir back in the ring sometime this year, and I sure hope it’s against a formidable opponent who can, if beaten by Khan, elevate Amir back to the top of the ladder.