Hatton can’t decide who he’d do better against – Khan or Kell Brook

09/14/201610/06/2012 ESB

Hatton can't decide who he'd do better against - Khan or Kell Brook By Michael Collins: Former two division world champion Ricky Hatton returns to the ring next month against former WBA World welterweight champion Vyacheslav Senchenko on November 24th in Manchester, England. If Hatton looks really good in blowing out Senchenko, he could find the pressure mounting for him to fight Amir Khan or Kell Brook in fights that would be positively huge in the UK. Hatton, 33, still wants to prove himself worthy of facing both of those guys by getting past Senchenko in style and perhaps some other fighters.

In an interview by Kugan Cassius of IFilm London, Hatton said “It’s really hard to say [who Hatton would do better against]. I’d have to sit on the fence and go right down the middle. If Amir Khan gets drawn into a fight, it goes to the blue corner. But if Amir sticks to his boxing ability and moves and uses his hand speed, then obviously you’d have to side with Amir by a slight edge. I really can’t split between the two of them.”

Hatton goes onto say that he has to prove himself against Senchenko before he’s mentioned with Khan and Brook. However, I just wonder how much Hatton will have proven even if he does blow out Senchenko.

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Khan vs Molina on Showtime on December 15th

09/14/201610/06/2012 ESB

By Michael Collins: Former IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (26-3, 18 KO’s) now has a venue, a U.S cable network carrier and a date for his next fight against lightweight Carlos Molina (17-0, 17 KO’s). Khan, 25, will be fighting Molina on December 15th on Showtime on in the U.S. a the Sports Arena, in Los Angeles, California. It’s a date the conflicts with a Top Rank card headlined by WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley possibly against light welterweight Lamont Peterson on HBO. As such, the audience for both fights will be much less than could be, not either of the main events are all that interesting.

One question you have to wonder about is whether Khan’s promoters at Golden Boy Promotions attempted to sell the Khan vs. Molina fight to HBO first and were turned down? HBO is where Khan’s fights have been televised recently in the U.S, and there have been rumors that they previously turned offers of Khan vs. Joan Guzman and Khan vs. Humberto Soto. If so, then it’s not surprising that they might have turned down Khan-Molina because this fight would seem a much bigger mismatch than those fight.

I’d pick Guzman and Soto to beat Molina every day of the week. I rate them as much better fighters than Molina. Not even close. The only thing that I can see that Molina has going for him is an unbeaten record but those wins have come against weak opposition, so it’s really not surprising that he still has an unbeaten record.

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Khan to unveil his new defense against Carlos Molina in December

09/14/201610/04/2012 ESB

By Michael Collins: Former IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (26-3, 18 KO’s) will unveil his new defensive skills learned from his new trainer Virgil Hunter when Khan faces 5’6″ lightweight Carlos Molina (17-0, 7 KO’s) in December in a still to be determined date. December 15th is the most likely date for the Khan-Molina fight, and it’s still not official that the fight will be aired on Showtime in the United States, although that’s what’s being said.

Khan said to Sky Sports News “I’m going to work on a new defense, new tactics for the next fight…I think Virgil Hunter will bring out the best in me…I was winning the fight against Danny Garcia quite easily and then I started to getting into a fight with him which is not my stye.”

Hunter is a trainer that is known for his ability teach defensive techniques. He did a great job on building WBA/WBC super middleweight champion Andre Ward from a young fighter to a champion. However, Hunter can teach things but Khan has to be willing to learn what he’s being told and apply in the ring. Teaching skills like defense takes a long time because a lot of fighters tend to fall back into their old habits when the going gets tough and they start getting hit.

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Can Virgil Hunter help Khan’s return?

09/14/201610/03/2012 ESB

by Robert Jackson: News Flash – Amir Khan has left the Freddie Roach camp and now trains under Andre Wards’ trainer Virgil Hunter. Also part of the Hunter camp are fighters Mike Dallas Jr, and Alfredo Angulo – both of whom turned to Hunter after ‘falling hard’ under their previous trainers. Last time we saw Khan in the ring he was getting KO’d by WBC 140lb Champion Danny Garcia. During that fight Khan abandoned his boxing pedigree showing a lot of heart to engage in an exciting street fight, to his own disadvantage.

Also during that fight Freddie Roach was unable to get Khan to follow the game plan and was unable to tell Khan anything in the corner that Khan would obey. Instead Khan threw caution to the wind and engaged in the type of battle that gave Garcia the advantage. After that loss Khan’s team approached Roach with new terms which included making Khan his TOP priority demoting other Roach fighters including Manny Pacquiao to lower priority to make Khan the TOP dog. To this Roach refused.

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Khan vs. Molina fight to be televised on Showtime

09/14/201610/01/2012 ESB

By Michael Collins: Showtime reportedly has bought the Amir Khan vs. Carlos Molina fight to televise on their network on December, according to Steve Kim of Maxboxing.com. The Khan-Molina fight could also have unbeaten heavyweight prospect Deontay Wilder fighting on the undercard against an unknown opponent. Molina, 5’6″, is a lightweight contender and would be moving up in weight to face the bigger, faster and stronger Khan. Presumably, the Khan-Molina fight was offered to HBO first but it doesn’t appear there was much interest from them.

A Khan vs. Molina would have been an okay fight for Khan to take earlier in his career but it does seem a tad out of place to be taking place now that he’s a former two-time world champion. There’s also the question about whether a Khan-Molina fight is worthy of being a main event for Showtime. I think it would be an okay ESPN2 level main event but not for Showtime. You’d expect a lot better than this given the size, power and talent differences between Khan and his smaller opponent Molina.

It’s been two years since Molina scored a knockout, which tells you a lot about his power or lack thereof. Molina has been facing little more than B and C level opposition and yet he’s not able to even knock them out.

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Khan: I could have chosen an easy opponent for December 15th

09/14/201609/30/2012 ESB

By Michael Collins: Amir Khan considers his next opponent the light hitting #10 WBO lightweight contender Carlos Molina (17-0, 7 KO’s) a tough opponent rather than just a soft touch which is what the 26-year-old Molina surely appears to be. No one would blame Khan for taking a light touch at this point in his career because he’s beaten in his last two fights against Lamont Peterson and Danny Garcia, although Khan feels he deserved the win in the Peterson fight. The judges obviously felt different after watching Khan shove Peterson around the ring for 12 rounds.

Khan said to the Dailystar.co.uk “I could have picked an easy fight but I’m going to have a tough one next because I want to bring the world titles back to Britain.”

A tough one? As far as I can tell, Molina has never fought contender before and is woefully inexperienced against high caliber opposition. Besides that, he’s a lightweight, not a light welterweight. Khan is really a big light welterweight, more of a welterweight fighting against light welterweights. So in choosing a lightweight to fight, Khan is facing a guy is much smaller than him in weigh, height, reach and body frame.

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Khan: I know I can get back to the top with Virgil Hunter as my trainer

09/14/201609/29/2012 ESB

By Michael Collins: Former IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan is convinced that his new trainer Virgil Hunter can turn his sinking career around and bring it back to where it briefly was while Khan was being trained by the well respected Freddie Roach from 2009 to 2012. Khan started out well with Roach, winning his first six fights before things started to turn rotten for him with two losses to Lamont Peterson and Danny Garcia.

Khan said “With Virgil in my corner, I know that I can get back to the very top of the light welterweight division.”

I somehow remember Khan saying pretty much the same thing when he hired Freddie Roach as his trainer not long after Khan was starched by Breidis Prescott. Roach was seen as his savior and indeed he helped Khan’s career by getting him through some decent opponents and through his toughest fight of his career against Marcos Maidana. However, Khan remained pretty much the same fighter he had been with other trainers.

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Khan and McCloskey in talks for rematch in December

09/14/201609/29/2012 ESB

By Michael Collins: To show you how far down Amir Khan’s once promising career has plummeted, he’s now looking to go over old ground by taking on a domestic level fighter in 33-year-old Paul McCloskey (24-2, 12 KO’s) in a rematch in December. McCloskey, at one time a contender in the light welterweight division, he’s lost two out of his last four fights [three if you count his gift decision over Breidis Prescott].

In an interview with the BBC Sport, McCloskey’s manager Francie McNichol said “Both parties are serious. The dates being mentioned are 8 or 15, December in Manchester…I would expect that something will be decided in the next week.”

There’s a couple of ways to look at it. One, Khan you could possibly see it as Khan giving up on being a world class fighter and just focusing on facing domestic level opposition in the UK to collect easy paydays to milk his still very high popularity over there.

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Amir Khan could face Diego Chaves next

09/14/201609/25/2012 ESB

By Marcus Richardson: Amir Khan could fight undefeated WBA interim welterweight champion Diego Chaves (22-0, 18 KO’s) next on December 15th. In an interview at Ole.com, Chaves said that he’d been contacted by Khan’s people about a fight with him. Chaves doesn’t know how much he’d be getting and when the fight would take place if he agreed to take the fight. He’s just thinking it over to decide whether he wants to take the fight.

Chaves would undoubtedly be asked to move down to 140 to take the fight with Khan, because Khan has made it clear that he doesn’t plan on moving up in weight right now and who can blame him. Khan has lost his last two fights and his career is on the brink of being finished. Chaves is a risky fight for Khan, because this guy can punch and is in the same class as former Khan conquerors Breidis Prescott and Danny Garcia in terms of power.

The fact that Chaves is being asked to take the fight seems to suggest that Khan’s promoters at Golden Boy Promotions need to find a guy with a good record and some ability before HBO will agree to take him for Khan’s next fight in December.

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Ricky Hatton wants Mayweather, Pacquiao, Khan and Brook

09/14/201609/15/2012 ESB

By Michael Collins: Ricky Hatton (45-2, 32 KO’s) is like a big kid in a candy store now that he’s decided to make a comeback on November 24th against who knows what kind of opponent. Hatton, 33, will be fighting in Manchester, England on the 24th of November and his opponent will probably be a soft touch brought in for him to shake off the ring rust from three years of inactivity huge weight gain. Hatton says he’s interested in facing Amir Khan, Floyd Mayweather Jr., Manny Pacquiao and Kell Brook. That’s a pretty impressive list I must say, but I don’t know that Hatton’s chances are good at beating any of them.

Even a fragile chinned Khan or the stamina plagued Brook could be enough to trip Hatton up before he’s had the chance to make the really cash in fights against Mayweather and/or Pacquiao. If Hatton is serious about wanting Mayweather or Pacquiao, he’s going to need to skip the Khan and Brook fights and go straight to Mayweather or Pacquiao. Those guys are getting older and it’s doubtful they’ll be hanging around too much longer.

Hatton told the Manchester Evening News “I’d love to get a crack at them [Khan and Brook]. I dream about another go at Mayweather and Pacquiao, without a doubt. The ultimate goal is to redeem myself.”

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