Is Amir Khan Overrated? Is He Still A Future Superstar? Questions About Khan

Published

13 years ago

December 12, 2011

Is Amir Khan Overrated? Is He Still A Future Superstar? Questions About Khan – TSS gives referee Joe Cooper a thumbs down for his performance on Saturday night. Taking two points for Khan for pushing was going overboard, and reeked of home cooking. TSS Universe, reffing aside, what was your take on Khan’s outing? (Hogan)

It may be reassessment time about Amir Kahn.

Is Khan a next generation superstar? Is he what many thought he was? Has he been overrated? Is he not a future, slam-dunk superstar and pay-per-view driver? Is he less than the sum of his parts?

Or maybe the questions don’t have to go in that direction. Maybe, based on his Saturday showing against Lamont Peterson, in which Peterson at the very least enjoyed some slight hospitality, or at most was handed a win by officials who were pre-disposed to giving him every edge against the invader from overseas, maybe Khan is right about where we thought he was. Maybe it’s Peterson who had a step-up night, who went above and beyond what he’d been able to do in the ring before, and who elevated himself. Maybe he deserves buckets of credit and that should be the focus of our post-fight analysis.

I’m certainly inclined to at the very least wonder where the heck Khan (26-2) goes from here. The kid, and let’s not forget, he is “only” 25, and has room to grow in the seasoning department, was talking mega-bouts before this one. He was on the short list to hit the Mayweather lottery. I think we can agree that was premature. That could still happen, but first Khan has to be able to handle a Lamont Peterson (30-1-1).

I really moved into a lead cheerleading car on Khan when I saw what he did to Paul Malignaggi in May 2010. His rhythm, reach, strategy, composure, I loved it all in that TKO11 win against Paulie in New York. And anyone having leftover questions about his chin probably was satisfied when he ate bombs from Marcos Maidana in his next outing, in December 2010. Yep, Khan was deservedly being talked about as a short-list superstar. But then, in my view, he took a little back-step. Yes, he won like every second of every round against Paul McCloskey. But it was a semi-stinker of an affair in his homebase of Lancashire, that technical decision win. I wanted to see more accuracy from Khan, would’ve liked to see less wild swinging, fewer three punch combos which feature two misses and one landed punch. The tendency to flurry and then dart away, what about sticking around, doing some in-close work, getting a tad more comfortable in that mode? Hey, I know that isn’t for everyone, maybe I’m just being too critical…And I knew McCloskey was a survivor, a bit of a cutie, wasn’t going to open up and make many mistakes. But he’s Paul McCloskey, not to be a punk. Shouldn’t a next gen superstar more so have his way with him?

Khan next gloved up against Zab Judah, this July, and that fight will mostly be remembered for Judah reverting to form, for the Brooklyn guy looking for reasons to jet, rather than retrench. Khan sometimes did his flurry and fall in thing, showed that he is still refining his footwork and balance, still getting a handle, perhaps, on his professional style.

And then Saturday night…The Pakistani-Brit showed that long jab, which is such a weapon when he remembers to use it regularly, early. We heard that Peterson described Khan as an “energy” fighter, and that stuck with me. He often looks a little too energized, a little too buzzed, like he drank one too many Red Bulls. Is it because he fears his chin won’t hold up? Is that why he can look a little frenetic in there?

I’m never a fan of wasted movement, because it is so draining for a fighter to use his legs to hustle away from a foe, like Cotto did against Margarito in 2008, as Khan sometimes does during his fights. Perhaps, moving forward, Khan will be able to employ a mere feint, the hint of offense, to keep a foe from launching, rather than resorting to circling halfway around the ring. His stamina seems to hold up fine, but that “running” sends a bad message to judges, oftentimes. Again, let me reiterate, he could be at his peak in about three years. He is still a work in progress. This may be an exercise in excessive critique…

And Peterson is a high level pugilist. The way he strafes the left hook to the body, hard and smooth, that is an art and a science. We saw him really getting in Khan’s face, and it had me wondering if Khan possesses the pop that people think he does. If he had a shade more, that might dissuade foes from stalking him effectively. I’m not sure if he can improve his pop–punchers are born, not made, right?–but perhaps if Khan were to set down more on his shots, he could force foes to be less inclined to chase him. This might enable him to do something I think he is capable of doing more of–be the leader, be first, impose his will, dictate pace and tone. Then again, trainer Freddie Roach asks for “under and outs” all the time, so I figure he knows what Khan needs to do to be as successful as possible…

Much was said about Peterson leading with his head. He didn’t really do this a la Evander Holyfield. He’d often throw, and his head would be low, but he wasn’t using it like a missile. He smartly tucks his chin, and that will tend to make one dip their head. He also finishes up by placing his head outside his foes elbows,’ a savvy move which leaves him hard to hit. It didn’t leap out at me on fight night, but I did notice it more upon re-watching. And, did Roach make a big deal of it during the bout? Did he lobby the ref to get Peterson to stop that? If he did, I missed it. I did see Khan lobbying the ref about the head in round 11, when he should have been concentrating on fighting. Let the K St. leeches do the lobbying, sir, you stick to boxing. Finally, a well placed uppercut, or twenty, will force an opponent to lift one’s head up, so they see that shot coming; maybe Khan wants to add that to the mix more next time. Check back to round nine, when Khan’s right uppercut stung Peterson.

That ref’s move to take a point for pushing at the tail end of round seven wasn’t hard to miss. It was ill advised, it reeked of an unfair advantage being offered to the hometown guy, and ref Joseph Cooper dropped the ball, bigtime. Yes, Amir was pushing off. Yes, that’s illegal. But fighters do it all the time, and don’t get penalized, and Khan wasn’t so egregious about it that Cooper should have injected his preferences into the decision. “I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a ref so focused on pushing, which is something normally you get away with,” Jim Lampley said.

I heard Roach ask Khan to put Peterson on his arse after round 11. I didn’t hear him pushing for a KO in other instances, though he texted me after and told me he did push for the stoppage. This leads me to one of my pet peeves: I really, firmly believe that it is in the best interest of trainers to push for KOs when they are fighting in the other guys’ home town. I think a trainer and fighter should go in with the assumption that the judges will screw them. I think it’s smart to demand your fighter aim for a stoppage, because judges have a long history of rewarding the local guy. Robert McCracken, are you listening?

Ref Cooper in round 12 again committed a cardinal sin, of injecting himself into the outcome on a judgment call. Peterson was up in Khan’s grill, Amir shoved him back and barked at the ref, and the ref called time, at the 1:54 mark, and took a point from Khan. It was ill advised, at best. This was a brawl, a heated tussle, and on those occasions, some form and niceties will be dispensed. Cooper messed up, bigtime, and does not deserve another marquee assignment based on his Saturday showing. But Khan did himself no favors by getting sidetracked. While Peterson was intent on staying focused on his foe, Khan had one eye on Cooper.

Then came the decision. Khan sagged, and then said to Larry Merchant after the decision that it was like fighting two people, Peterson and Cooper. He took a shot at DC for being a biased fight-town, and said he was the cleaner fighter in that bout.

At the post-fight presser, which I viewed http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5r7fXnp2w6o courtesy of the ultra pros at Boricua Boxing, Khan’s promoter Oscar De La Hoya pointed out that it was a stellar fight and both boxers deserve major credit. He then took issue with the second point deduction, and said that with no deductions, Khan wins. He said all involved want a rematch, and I think mostly struck the right notes during his time at the mike.

Khan spoke after Peterson. He said that Peterson “kept his head low” and that “the referee was a bit on his side. ..He won the fight tonight,” he stated, and asked for a rematch to be in the UK. In the next breath, he said he won the fight, and said some commissioners told him it was a “disgusting” decision. He implied that the counting of the cards was shady. “We knew who won that fight!” he said in closing, asking for a rematch right away.

A writer then asked if he regretted coming to DC. Khan said no, but wants to know if Peterson will have the same cajones as him. Khan said he’d do the fight in Vegas or in the UK. He repeated his take that Cooper was against him.

“Anywhere else it would have been a winnable fight,” Khan said.

After the scrap, Team Khan and Golden Boy issued a statement indicating they would follow up in an official manner:

Firstly, we would like to congratulate Lamont Peterson on his performance against Amir Khan. Not only has he shown that he is a tremendous fighter inside the ring, but also a great man out of the ring.

Following the decision in the fight, Team Khan and Golden Boy Promotions intends to make inquiries with the District of Columbia Boxing and Wrestling Commission, the IBF and the WBA regarding the performance of referee Joseph Cooper and will also be seeking clarification regarding certain ambiguities with respect to the scores of the fight.

We look forward to an immediate rematch with Lamont as confirmed by Lamont and his manager/trainer Barry Hunter.

Golden Boy has had a run of controversial situations lately, and lodged a protest following Bernard Hopkins’ loss to Chad Dawson on Oct. 15, and Hopkins’ draw against Jean Pascal in December 2010. A few years ago, Richard Schaefer made public his view that his company was getting screwed over in tight situations, so I wonder if they again feel there is an anti Golden Boy bias?

TSS Universe, I’d like to hear from you. I tossed a lot of comments and opinions on Khan. Please offer your take. Is he overrated? What would you like to see him do more of, and less, to maximize his skills? What is his upside? Are pundits too harsh on Amir? Can he make adjustments and beat Peterson? Should he demand they fight in the UK? Weigh in, in our Forum.

Is Amir Khan Overrated? Is He Still A Future Superstar? Questions About Khan / Check out more boxing news on video at The Boxing Channel.

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Avila Perspective, Chap. 289: East LA, Claressa Shields and More

Published

1 day ago

July 25, 2024

David A. Avila

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Avila Perspective, Chap. 289: East LA, Claressa Shields and More

East Los Angeles has long been a haven for some of the best fighters around if you can keep them out of trouble. For every Oscar De La Hoya or Seniesa Estrada there are thousands derailed by crime, drugs or drinking.

Boxing has always been a favorite sport of East L.A. Every family has an uncle or two who boxes.

On Friday, 360 Promotions’ Omar Trinidad (15-0-1) fights Viktor Slavinskyi (15-2-1) in the main event at Commerce Casino, in Commerce, CA. UFC Fight Pass will stream the fight card.

The City of Commerce used to be part of East L.A. until 1960 when it incorporated. It’s still considered to be part of East Los Angeles, but informally.

Plenty of fighters come out of East L.A. but few make it all the way like De La Hoya and Estrada. Will Trinidad be the one?

The first world champion from East L.A. or “East Los” as some call it, was Solly Garcia Smith back in the late 1800s. Others were Richie Lemos, Art Frias and Joey Olivo. There is also 1984 Olympic gold medalist Paul Gonzalez.

Once again 360 Promotions brings its popular brand of fights to the area. On this fight card includes two female bouts. One features Roxy Verduzco (1-0) the former amateur star fighting Colleen Davis (3-1-1) in a featherweight fight.

All that action takes place on Friday.

Elite Boxing

The next day, also in East L.A., Elite Boxing stages another boxing card at Salesian High School located at 960 S. Soto Street in the Boyle Heights area of East Los Angeles.

Elite Boxing has promoted several successful boxing cards at the Catholic high school grounds. The area is saturated by many of the best eateries in Los Angeles. Don’t take my word for it. Check it out yourself and grab some of that delicious food.

Boxing has long been a favorite sport of anyone who lives in East L.A. It’s a fight town equal to Philadelphia, Brooklyn or Detroit. There’s something different about the area. For more than 100 years some of the best fighters continue to come out of its boxing gyms. Some will be performing on these club shows.

For tickets or information go to www.eliteboxingusa.com

Claressa Shields in Detroit

Speaking of fight towns, pound-for-pound best Claressa Shields who won two Olympic Gold Medals in boxing, moves up another weight division to tackle the WBC heavyweight world champion Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse on Saturday, July 27, at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, Michigan.

DAZN will stream the heavy-duty fight card.

Shields (14-0) cleaned out the super welterweight, middleweight and super middleweight divisions and now wants to add the big girls to her conquests. She will be facing Canada’s Lepage-Joanisse (7-1) who holds the WBC belt.

The last time Shields gloved up was more than a year ago when she fought Maricela Cornejo. Don’t blame Shields. She loves to fight. She loves to win. The last time Shields lost a fight was in the amateurs and that was three presidential administrations ago.

Shields doesn’t lose.

I wonder if Las Vegas even takes bets on her fights?

The only fight she may have been an underdog was against Savannah Marshall who was the last opponent to defeat her. And that was in 2012 in China. When they met as pros two years ago, Shields avenged her loss with a blistering attack.

Don’t get Shields mad.

Perhaps her toughest foe as a pro was in her pro debut when she clashed with Franchon Crews-Dezurn in Las Vegas. It was four rounds of fists and fury as the two pounded each other on the undercard of Andre Ward and Sergey Kovalev in November 2016.

That was a ferocious debut for both female pugilists.

Assisting Shields on this fight card will be several intriguing male bouts. One guy you should pay special attention is Tito Mercado (15-0, 14 KOs) a super lightweight prospect from Pomona, California.

Many excellent fighters have come out of Pomona including Sugar Shane Mosley, Shane Mosley Jr., Alberto Davila and Richie Sandoval who just passed away this week.

Sandoval was best known for his 15-round war with Philadelphia’s Jeff Chandler for the bantamweight world title in 1984. Read the story by Arne K. Lang on this link: https://tss.ib.tv/boxing/featured-boxing-articles-boxing-news-videos-rankings-and-results/81467-former-world-bantamweight-champion-richie-sandoval-passes-away-at-age-63 .

Fights to Watch

Fri. UFC Fight Pass 7 p.m. Omar Trinidad (15-0-1) vs Viktor Slavinskyi (15-2-1).

Sat. ESPN+ 12:30 p.m. Joe Joyce (16-2) vs Derek Chisora (34-13).

Sat. DAZN 3 p.m. Claressa Shields (14-0) vs Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse (7-1), Michel Rivera (25-1) vs Hugo Roldan (22-2-1); Tito Mercado (15-0) vs Hector Sarmiento (21-2).

Omar Trinidad photo by Lina Baker

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Arne’s Almanac: Jake Paul and Women’s Boxing, a Curmudgeon’s Take

Published

3 days ago

July 24, 2024

Arne K. Lang

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Jake Paul can fight more than a little. The view from here is that he would make it interesting against any fringe contender in the cruiserweight division. However, Jake’s boxing acumen pales when paired against his skill as a flim-flam artist.

Jake brought a 9-1 record into last weekend’s bout with Mike Perry. As noted by boxing writer Paul Magno, Jake’s previous opponents consisted of “a You Tuber, a retired NBA star, five retired MMA stars, a part-time boxer/reality TV star, and two undersized and inactive fall-guy boxers.”

Mike Perry, a 32-year-old Floridian, was undefeated (6-0, 3 KOs) as a bare-knuckle boxer after forging a 14-8 record in UFC bouts. In pre-fight blurbs, Perry was billed as the baddest bare knuckle boxer of all time, but against Jake Paul he proved to have very unrefined skills as a conventional boxer which Team Paul undoubtedly knew all along. Perry lasted into the eighth round in a one-sided fight that could have been stopped a lot sooner.

Jake Paul is both a boxer and a promoter. As a promoter, he handles Amanda Serrano, one of the greatest female boxers in history. That makes him the person most responsible (because the buck stops with him) for the wretched mismatch in last Saturday’s co-feature, the bout between Serrano and Stevie Morgan.

Morgan, who took up boxing two years ago at age 33, brought a 14-1 record. Nicknamed the Sledgehammer, she had won 13 of her 14 wins by knockout, eight in the opening round. However, although she resides in Florida, all but one of those 13 knockouts happened in Colombia.

“We found that in Colombia there were just more opportunities for women’s boxing than in the United States,” she told a prominent boxing writer whose name we won’t mention.

The truth is that, for some folks, Colombia is the boxing equivalent of a feeder lot for livestock, a place where a boxer can go to fatten their record. The opportunities there were no greater than in Hot Springs, Arkansas, in 1995. It was there that Peter McNeeley prepped for his match with Mike Tyson with a 6-second knockout of professional punching bag Frankie Hines. (Six seconds? So it would be written although no one seems to have been there to witness it.)

Serrano vs Morgan was understood to be a stay-busy fight for Amanda whose rematch with Katie Taylor was postponed until November. Stevie Morgan, to her credit, answered the bell for the second round whereas others in her situation would have remained on the stool and invented an injury to rationalize it. Thirty-eight seconds later it was all over and Ms. Morgan was free to go home and use her sledgehammer to do some light dusting.

The Paul-Perry and Serrano-Morgan fights played out in a sold-out arena in Tampa before an estimated 17,000. Those without a DAZN subscription paid $64.95 for the livestream. Paul’s next promotion, where he will touch gloves with 58-year-old Mike Tyson (unless Iron Mike pulls a Joe Biden and pulls out; a capital idea) with Serrano-Taylor II the semi-main, will almost certainly rake in more money than any other boxing promotion this year.

Asked his opinion of so-called crossover boxing by a reporter for a college newspaper, the venerable boxing promoter Bob Arum said, “It’s not my bag but folks who don’t like it shouldn’t get too worked up over it because no one is stealing from anybody.” True enough, but for some of us, the phenomenon is distressing.

—

The next big women’s fight happens Saturday in Detroit where Claressa Shields seeks a world title in a third weight class against WBC heavyweight belt-holder Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse.

A two-time Olympic gold medalist, undefeated in 14 fights as a pro, Shields is very good, arguably the best female boxer of her generation which makes her, arguably, the best female boxer of all time. But turning away Lepage-Joanisse (7-1, 2 KOs) won’t elevate her stature in our eyes.

Purportedly 17-4 as an amateur, the Canadian won her title in her second crack at it. Back in August of 2017, she challenged Cancun’s Alejandra Jimenez in Cancun and was stopped in the third round. Entering the bout, Lepage-Joanisse was 3-0 as a pro and had never fought a match slated for more than four rounds.

Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse

True, on the women’s side, the heavyweight bracket is a very small pod. A sanctioning body has to make concessions to harness a sanctioning fee. Nonetheless, how absurd that a woman who had answered the bell for only 11 rounds would be deemed qualified to compete for a world title. (FYI: Alejandra Jimenez was purportedly born a man. She left the sport with a 12-0-1 record after her win over Franchon Crews Dazurn was changed to a no-contest when she tested positive for the banned steroid stanozolol.)

Following her defeat to Jimenez, Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse, now 29 years old, was out of action for six-and-a-half years. When she returned, she was still a heavyweight, but a much slender heavyweight. She carried 231 pounds for Jimenez. In her most recent bout where she captured the vacant WBC title with a split decision over Argentina’s Abril Argentina Vidal, she clocked in at 173 ¼. (On the distaff side, there’s no uniformity among the various sanctioning bodies as to what constitutes a heavyweight.)

Claressa Shields doesn’t need Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse to reinforce her credentials as a future Hall of Famer. She made the cut a long time ago.

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Former World Bantamweight Champion Richie Sandoval Passes Away at Age 63

Published

4 days ago

July 22, 2024

Arne K. Lang

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Richie Sandoval, who won the WBA and lineal bantamweight title in one of the biggest upsets of the 1980s and then, not quite two years later, suffered near-fatal injuries in a title defense, has passed away at the age of 63.

News circulated fast in the Las Vegas boxing community on Monday, July 22, the grapevine actuated by a tweet from Hall of Fame matchmaker Bruce Trampler: “Boxing and the Top Rank family lost one of our own last night in the passing of former WBA bantamweight champion Richie Sandoval. It hurts personally and professionally to know that Richie is gone at age 63. RIP campeon.”

Details are vague but the cause of death was apparently a sudden heart attack that Sandoval experienced while visiting the Southern California home of his son of the same name.

Richie Sandoval put the LA County community of Pomona, California, on the boxing map before Shane Mosley came along and gave the town a more frequently-cited mention in the sports section of the papers. He came from a fighting family. An older brother, Albert “Superfly” Sandoval, became a big draw at LA’s fabled Olympic Auditorium while building a 35-2-1 record that included a failed bid to capture Lupe Pintor’s world bantamweight title.

Richie was a member of the 1980 U.S. Olympic boxing team that was stranded when U.S. President Jimmy Carter (and many other world leaders) boycotted the event as a protest against Russia’s invasion of Afghanistan.

As a pro, Sandoval’s signature win was a 15^th-round stoppage of Jeff Chandler. They fought on April 7, 1984 in Atlantic City. Chandler was making the tenth defense of his world bantamweight title.

Despite being a heavy underdog, Sandoval dominated the fight, winning almost every round until the referee stepped in and waived it off. Chandler, who was 33-1-2 heading in and had avenged his lone defeat, never fought again.

Sandoval made two successful defenses before risking his title against Gaby Canizales on the undercard of Hagler-Mugabi in the outdoor stadium at Caesars Palace. In round seven, Sandoval, who had a hellish time making the weight, was knocked down three times and suffered a seizure as he collapsed from the third knockdown. Stretchered out of the ring, he was rushed to the hospital where doctors reduced the swelling in his brain and beat the odds to save his life. This would be Richie’s lone defeat. He finished his pro career with a record of 29-1 (17 KOs).

Bob Arum cushioned some of the pain by giving Richie a $25,000 bonus and offering him a lifetime job at Top Rank which Richie accepted. And let the record show that Arum was good to his word.

A more elaborate portrait of Richie Sandoval was published in these pages in 2017. You can check it out HERE. May he rest in peace.

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