Virgil Talks Khan-Mayweather, Khan-Thurman

Published

10 years ago

June 1, 2015

You sometimes get a lot of nothing at post-fighter pressers, other times you get some useful nuggets.

I found some interesting material in what trainer Virgil Hunter stated after his guy Amir Khan got the narrow UD over Chris Algieri on Friday night at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

The Cali-based tutor, when I asked him to give Amir a grade, offered the letter “D,” which cracked me up.

“D?” I asked.

Yes, he replied. He didn’t think all that highly of Khan’s outing. He brought up the distractions, which, he implied, took away from the fighters’ effort. Mostly, he implied, those distractions took the form of a focus on what would come next, after Algieri, presumably, that being a fight with Floyd Mayweather.

Then, during a query session with media, he was asked about his guy getting buckled by Algieri. Nah, he said, when my guy gets hurt, he generally goes down. He got hurt by Marcos Maidana, but by Algieri? Nah..

“I think he sees it coming, he’s proved he can handle it,” said Hunter, whose top client is Andre Ward, who fights June 20.

Then, Hunter was asked about Khan-Mayweather. I’ve been honest with him, he said, “He’s going to do what a young buck can do, fight over his head,” he said. His boxing IQ will never match Floyd’s, the sage said he told Khan. And a win over Floyd would be akin to the Buster Douglas win over Mike Tyson. Hmmm…good stuff.

Harsh truth…or some gamesmanship? Was Hunter being totally candid..or sowing some seeds with Team Mayweather? Or maybe in Khan’s head, knowing it would get back to him, that his trainer thinks he’s that far from Floyd, skill and boxing-IQ-wise…

Hunter continued; Floyd is on another level, and maybe but only maybe that could be offset by youthful vibrancy. “I think he has the attributes to take it to that level,” he said of the Brit, and IF he can prep right, he could pull a stunner.

If, huh..

Fascinating…

Then Hunter dropped another nugget. Asked about a Khan-Keith Thurman fight, and he said that Thurman has been vocal, and…well…he hasn’t been getting kayoes as he’s moved up in weight. Furthermore, he says he has some intel on Thurman, from back in the amateurs, that he could drop if he wanted to. Thurman needs to not get ahead of himself, he stated, and shouldn’t get ahead of himself because fans are clamoring for a particular scrap.

Do tell, Virgil…what’s the intel on Thurman? He got a china-chin he’s hiding?

Again, you often get throwaway stuff post-fight, but in this case, it was worth the waiting time.

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