by James Slater – Even long before he was iced inside a single minute by Colombia’s Breidis Prescott, there were serious question marks surrounding Amir Khan’s chin and his ability to take a punch. Down heavily in his fight with the relatively soft-punching Willie Limond (obviously, NO boxer’s punch is soft!), Khan’s chin was under intense scrutiny afterwards..
Another scare followed, against tough guy Michael Gomez, who also put the former Olympian on the deck in their fight, and then the job was done by Prescott. Khan was now officially looked at as a “chinny” fighter.
Since the shock defeat at the hands of the unbeaten Colombian, Khan has gone to LA to try and rebuild his career under the tutelage of new trainer Freddie Roach. Whilst out at Freddie’s famous Wild Card gym, Khan has been sparring with the great Manny Pacquiao, and Khan has felt encouragement from the way he has handled himself in the sessions.
Speaking in an article on Mirror Sport, Khan says the work with “Pac-Man” has done him no end of good.
“Sparring with Manny was great,” Khan said. “He wasn’t going to let a kid come into the gym and beat him up. I got caught with some big shots and I caught him with a few. That’s boxing and it gives you confidence if someone like Manny can hit you with a big shot and you can take it and come back at him.”
Khan is slowly but surely regaining the confidence he had before the Prescott disaster, and is looking ahead to his comeback fight on December 6th, against the Irishman, Oisin Fagan.
“I’ve dealt with my defeat by working hard,” Khan stated.
Khan deserves credit for taking the approach he has since losing for the first time. Throwing himself into an intense training regime and sparring with the best pound-for-pound fighter on the planet can only be a good thing for the 22-year-old. Still, taking a good shot in the gym is, as the pros will tell you, a whole lot different from taking a good shot in a real fight. It’s good that Khan has been able to live with the ferocious Filipino in sparring, but he shouldn’t now think he can take bombs in a pro fight and not have to worry.
There will be a lot of interest in the Khan-Fagan fight in London, and a lot of the interest will be focused on Khan’s chin. Will it hold up to what the Irishman plans to test it with? Khan, obviously, believes it will.