08.12.06 – By Jeff Bastasini: British Light welterweight Amir Khan (9-0, 7 KO’s), the former Olympian from the 2004 Olympic games, will be Rachid Drilzane (10-3) on Saturday night, December 9th, at the ExCel Arena, in London, England. At stake will be the vacant IBF intercontinental light welterweight title, something that is important more in terms of a boxing resume than in a real money-ralated sense. Drilzane, 28, isn’t expected to present much in the way of opposition for Khan, considering that the Frenchman doesn’t possess much in the way of power, and, in fact, doesn’t have one knockout on his record..
However, that’s the whole point, isn’t it? In his first 9 bouts, Khan, 20, despite walking though his easy, 2nd and 3rd tier opposition, he’s been hurt a number of occasions by powerful shots.
Clearly, not a good sign for the future for Khan, who is expected to challenge for a title, perhaps as early as 2007, if things go as planned. In Khan’s defense, people, mainly his fans, have pointed to the fact that he’s still very young, and has a lot of time to improve. To this, I say, how does a chin improve over time? For me, I think it usually goes in the opposite direction, especially when a fighter suffers a particularly bad knockout, like Wladimir Klitschko did against Corrie Sanders or Joe Mesi, after being knocked down several times against Vassily Jirov. Of course, Khan can learn to adjust by avoiding all out brawling with the bigger punchers, once he gets to that point. But here’s the thing: He will have to completely change his aggressive style, which brought him fame a small fortune up to this point. At this point, I’m not entirely certain that Khan can do this.
After having seen all of his 9 professional fights, including many of his fights in the Olympics, I’ve noticed that Khan generally likes to stand and trade punches with his opponents, leaving himself open for big shots. In the finals of his 2004 Olympic match, Khan lost it after trying to slug it out with the more powerful Cuban fighter, Mario Kindelan, who didn’t have nearly as much speed as Khan. However, instead of using his boxing ability and staying away from the Cuban, Khan attempted to knockout the Cuban, and ended up losing a punishing match by the score of 30-22. While, Khan was able to avenge the defeat later on, he still showed the same tendency to mix it up when he should be fighting smart.
At any rate, we shall soon see if Khan’s aggressive style will be a problem for him, since he plans on fighting for a championship sometime in late 2008, most likely against either Diego Corrales or Jose Juis Castillo, both of whom would be very dangerous fights for the shakey chinned Khan, in my estimation. That said, Khan does have one advantage over them, slight as it is, that being the fact that both Castillo and Corrales have been in countless ring which are starting to show their effects. Also, both Castillo and Corrales are getting up there in age, and it could be a factor over the course of a long, 12-round bout with a fighter as young and as fast as Khan. However, at this point, either them would be a very tough task for Khan to defeat, at least this version of Khan.
As for Drilzane, this will be a relatively easy fight for Khan, one where he will be able to showcase his boxing skills. Drilzane has decent skills, but without any power to speak of, he’ll be an easy mark for the hard punching Khan. Look for Khan to drag out the punishment over the course of the bout, and make Drilzane a punching dummy. However, if Drilzane lands anything substantial in the early rounds, I see Khan getting angry and stopping him with a flurry of unanswered punches. Either way, this fight will be a brutal, one-sided beating with Khan dominating from start to finish.