Tiresome Khan bandwagon rolls on by Terry Dooley Apr 2nd 2008

Boxing wunderkind Amir Khan takes on Martin Kristjansen in Bolton this Saturday to continue his impetuous, and impudent, progress towards a planned world title at lightweight.  However, in reality this battle will do little, in fistic terms, to change the world lightweight scene, other than giving Khan another run out as he runs headlong into a proposed title shot.  In fact this showdown is not even the most important lightweight fight taking place in the UK this weekend. This distinction belongs to the genuinely intriguing Friday night clash between British Champion Jon Thaxton and European ruler Yuri Romanov. Although we can guess as to which fight will receive the most column inches and hype.  Without intending any disrespect towards Kristjansen, this writer feels that Saturday's fight is just another stop-off point for the Khan bandwagon, as the young boxer heads towards a world title, any title, although given that still-dangerous Joel Casamayor and Nate Campbell hold the main titles, linear and the important belts respectively, it is unlikely that Khan will get anything other than a paper title at lightweight, then, with the job done, a leap to another weight, with more titles to cherry pick, would seem the obvious step. No disrespect to Khan but his Olympic medal already seems a lifetime ago. The effervescent hype that greeted his arrival in the professional game has grown too flat and tepid for some tastes. So far, from Khan, to quote Chaka Khan, it has not been ‘All Good', although he has gone from ‘certified hot to rated lukewarm' in the eyes of some (yep, it is springtime, and that means it is De La Soul time). Khan fights now seem little more than events, adding another name to his statistically glistening record whilst the serious fighters in the division, men such as Thaxton and Romanov, fight to decide who really deserves a title shot, depressingly the winner of that bout will still be further away than Khan from a title tilt.  Kristjansen, like other Khan opponents, is a name to put in the other corner; a relatively clean record will be licked spotless by the wagging tongues of the ITV commentary team. First things first: is this a denigration of Kristjansen? Not at all. The fact is that Khan has merely spoken about fights with Thaxton and Romanov, leaving Thaxton and Romanov to do the real fighting, in a real venue, the York Hall.  In his defence you can take the record of Kristjansen and sex it up a little bit. Never been stopped, decent results, a loss on points and a draw against former EBU Champion Stefano Zoff; he is talking a good fight also, what is there not to like?  Well, for starters, like most of the Khan opponents thus far, he is a seeming non-puncher. For the main course he is absolutely not a Jon Thaxton or a Yuri Romanov. The proof of in the pudding is that he is coming into the fight on a sterling run of not having scored a stoppage in his last seven bouts, one of them the draw with Zoff.  This being boxing, Kristjansen does not have to be an outstanding opponent anyway. In boxing it is entirely possible to change a sow's ear into a silk purse, you do not even need alchemy to do it, all you need is someone with enough rhetorical ability to persuade people that what in fact looks like a sow's ear is actually the new look silk purse, never mind the quandary of perception, feel the quality of ownership.  Alternatively, given that rhetorical persuasion is a little too subtle for the blunt trauma PA forces within boxing, all you need to do is to get a group of people to say “this is a silk purse”, the punter will then take away the sow's ear and pass it off as a silk purse. In reality, given that Amir could have been facing Thaxton or Romanov, Khan is already a loser in the minds of many knowledgeable fans. A Silver medallist at the Olympics Khan is, at best, only going to win bronze this weekend, Yuri and Jon are fighting for gold and silver, an unthinkable loss for Khan and Amir does not even get the bronze, he gets a wooden spoon. On the flip side we could explore the above views with a soft focus lens, arguing for Khan's record thus far and stating that he is right to be in this type of fight at this point in his career. We apply the lens, remove the chaff of poor opposition and go for the sustenance in his record. Thus far Khan's record has consisted, mainly, of smaller guys that cannot punch, guys he has dispatched with some panache, barring the odd knockdown against said non-punching smaller men. The one cleansing result, the one beacon of fearlessness on the part of his handlers, is Graham Earl. Earl had already defeated Yuri Romanov by the time he fought Khan, so that negates the need for Khan to fight Yuri, no? Earl was also an experienced fighter at the title level. Also, Earl had fought Michael Katsidis to a standstill, being prematurely stopped in the fifth after almost stopping Michael in the second round of their bout.  Earl took all these proofs of his toughness into the Khan fight and was obliterated in a single round of controlled punching by Khan. Surely this sets Khan over and above the also-rans fighting on Friday night? On the other hand we could rip off the soft focus lens and look again at Earl's fight with Khan. Earl defeated Romanov, this is undisputable, yet this was a rusty Romanov, brought to the UK as part of a gamble to grab a decent scalp, a Romanov who was beatable due to inactivity and rust. Earl swarmed Romanov yet, when Yuri found form in the fight, Graham was hit so hard and so often that, in my mind at least, Earl was never the same again.  In subsequent fights – Angel Hugo Ramirez, Katsidis and Khan – Earl seemed to have the balance and poise of a drunken sailor, against Katsidis he was battered from pillar to post, despite scoring a knockdown, one that ironically gave the false impression that Earl was not being treated like a punch bag post-Romanov.  In short you can look at Khan's win over Earl and say it was a stirring win over one of the UK's toughest guys, the best British guy in fact, ergo Khan has cleaned house domestically; or you can say that is was a tainted win over a guy who had left everything in the ring in order to defeat a rusted Romanov; this rhetoric business, it is awesome. In terms that you can tack to the wall using brass Amir Khan's path of progress seems to be a single-minded pursuit of a world title, any title, bar one that will involve a fight with the likes of Thaxton or Romanov.  With each passing fight it is hard not to be cynical about the career of Khan; this urge to win a title young to beat a statistic suggests that he will lean towards a statistic friendly career. Win a title, unify if the pickings are easy, move up in weight if the pickings are hard, win another title at a new weight, continue until you retire, show off all your belts. We should not begrudge Khan his success; however we should begrudge him his acclaim, Amir wants to be a great fighter but is not putting himself into the fights that would facilitate this aim, such as a Thaxton or Romanov bout.  As a big fan of Khan early in his career this writer hoped to follow him all the way through; watching Amir develop his style on a fight-by-fight basis, watching him clear out the division, watching him take on the best challenges. Instead it has become quite stale and dull early into that career. No meaningful, dangerous, British names as yet; a style that is flighty and seems to be incongruent with the pro game, plus can be repetitive; the sense of watching the same fight over and over again; the sense of watching the same fight over and over again; the poorly-worded public challenges to all and sundry followed by yet another fight against an imported fighter who cannot punch. For a fighter who set out wanting to emulate the greats Khan has merely started to grate, it has become predictable and his career seems to be heading towards decadence.  Thus far all the little strands of evidence – the non-punchers in the other corner, the fact he takes right hands so easily, the fact a non-puncher dropped him – all point to an unpalatable conclusion for British sports writers: maybe they have another Errol Christie on their hands. Only this one will not be found out at the lower level, purely because his handlers will not put him into harm's way there.  On Friday Thaxton and Romanov square-off for a traditional title, Khan fights an elimination fight for a title that has had more elimination bouts than it has had title fights in recent times. At this rate the WBO Interim Lightweight title will become a title in itself, and with that said maybe Khan will achieve the dream of a world title, of sorts, before the end of this year, the rest of us, though, will know that on Saturday he fights for very little, whilst two names he recently called out fight one another for everything.

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jb313 Apr 3rd 2008, 07:11:51 by neckodeemus Hello jb, Khan slowing down might not be the worst thing to happen. In-ring he can be a bit like a headless chicken at times and is still settling his style. I just don't think this latest fight does him any favours whatsoever. Hopefully he misses that self-imposed deadline and allows his promoter to guide his career, rather than being pressured in every interview by ITV, who seem to want him to become a title holder on their watch. As for Thaxton-Yuri. Got to say Yuri I'm afraid. A win for Jon would be great but Yuri, in my opinion, is the better, younger, and fresher fighter. It is a big ask for Jon. Terry   Article Apr 3rd 2008, 07:06:00 by neckodeemus Hello h3sky, Thanks for the comment and reading the article. Hate to be facetious here but I'm not sure Amir has taken on a former Champion at the top of his game. Only name that comes close to this is St. Clair. St. Clair held a title at super-featherweight but was not a unified Champion by any stretch and was not at the top of his game versus Khan. He was a smaller guy with a name that could be embellished by some decent TV punditry. Sure he was tough to KO but at lightweight he posed no threat to Amir. Aside from the odd right hand. Cheers, Terry   khan's boxing again...yawn Apr 3rd 2008, 06:20:48 by sindii Seriously, it's a joke just like mr audley harrison. Amir Khan seems to box opponents who aren't even competive and even then some gave him problems. He's not world class and never will be. The only things i've seen improve are his power, physique and fitness. His boxing brain seems to have gone. When he boxed willie limond im sure that nice fast jab would have made the fight so much easier against a smaller man. We have many decent fighters at his weight in the uk but if they can remotely hit then they don't get matched with Khan. Earl, could dig but at the weighin before the fight he looked shot as a man nevermind as a fighter, only reason he ever got the fight in the first place. ps i hope khan fights decent, strong fighters and proves us wrong but he's too chinny.   Thanks for the reply Apr 3rd 2008, 05:35:44 by jb313 Well Terry, we shouldn't forget how young Amir is as well. How many other young British boxers have moved the pace Khan has and how many have achieved what he has at his age? Lets not get dragged into the media hype, I'm actually a fan asking him to slow down! Whether its an eliminator after an eliminator doesn't really matter, its a good step towards a title and Khan will be top 2 ranked by the WBO next week (if he wins) and probably top 3-5 ranked by every other governing body, plus he does offer a big financial reward to the champions. Plus it looks like Casamayor will drop his interim belt rather than fight Campbell so the situation could be sorted out sooner rather than later. One thing we do know is Khan himself is full of ambition, he'll want to shut up Thaxton and Romanov - hopefully Warren will let him. Out of interest who you got in the Thaxton/Romanov fight? I think Romanov will win myself which is a shame because I'd love to have seen Khan/Thaxton!   cut the young boy some slack Apr 3rd 2008, 04:39:44 by h3sky I guess you need to be a pro for more then 10 years have 35 fights before you come close to fighting world class fighters is great, but two years a pro 16 fights beaten former world champions at the top of their game means your taking the easy way out, not in my book. Yes this fight on paper is easier then Gary St Clair but they had a contract that they could inforce and we all know that the preferred route for Kahn, would have been Romanov. So lets cut the young boy some slack give him a chance.   Its about time someone told it as it is, Apr 2nd 2008, 17:27:12 by Thankyou Terry, for writing the truth about Khan! everyone employed by Sky/ITV and even Boxing News seem to bow to this great new hope,(sorry, Joke). I see him as no more than another very marketable replacement for the self appointed prince Naseem Hamed and I see Khan going the same way, if he keeps getting opponents who cant punch to save their lives he will be shell shocked as soon as he gets tagged properly, END OF!! No doubt the dutiful employees of Khans' pay masters will be ass licking and bleeting on about how wonderful he is and what a fantastic job he did when the fight is over, and we will get the usual crap about what a dangerous opponent he is facing in the build up to the fiasco,bla,bla,bla. Any way Terry, thanks once again!   Article Apr 2nd 2008, 15:24:06 by neckodeemus Hello jb, thanks for taking the time to read the article, much appreciated. It may seem the work of someone who does not rate Khan but this is not the case. I simply feel that the fight itself is a step backwards for Amir. Casamayor's last fight was billed as a final eliminator for the title and this fight is therefore billed as an eliminator to the eliminator. On the other hand you have Thaxton and Romanov, both recently challenged by Amir. If Khan takes on the winner of the other fight then fair enough, in the meantime he is taking on a fight for little reward other than the promise of a fight against a man who may fight the title holder. Hopefully the situation will sort itself out in time, Khan will miss his title deadline and then have no choice but to follow a traditional route. We'll rein the horses in just a little in the hope that Amir takes on the winner of Friday's fight. Terry Ps Matt W, Big Aud will have his day ;0)   Oi. Dooley. NOOOO Apr 2nd 2008, 13:38:07 by matt w Oi, Dooley, you dissin' my mate??? ;o) Try and look on the bright side - he's done better than Big Aud...!   Whoa, whoa hold your horses! Apr 2nd 2008, 11:45:33 by jb313 Come on Terry, talk about harsh! Yes Thaxton/Romanov is the more intriguing contest, but to suggest Khan should fight one of those two rather than a WBO World Title eliminator is absurd! Its sad that the WBO made this an eliminator, but they did, Khan shouldn't take any blame for that because he's going straight for Campbell/Casamayor which is the fight we all want to see. Hopefully Khan can fight the winner of this while the WBO situation is being sorted out, but to write a whole article just slagging off Khan for this crazy.