Amir Khan’s trainer Virgil Hunter doesn’t see anything wrong with Khan’s ability to take hard shots at all. In fact, he credits him with the ability to get up from shots that would put other fights down and unable to get up from the knockdown. For this reason, Hunter thinks that Khan is a very good option for Floyd Mayweather Jr’s next fight on May 3rd. Hunter thinks Khan will get up from pretty much any knockdown because of his recuperative powers.
It’s unclear if that’s a good thing if Khan is too staggered to put up a fight. We saw Khan get knocked down several times against Danny Garcia last year, and he was ineffective after the first knockdown. He was just getting up and getting knocked back down again by Garcia.
“Let’s face it, Manny got knocked down and he didn’t get up,” Hunter said to Fighthype. “Now they’re already back screaming for this fight, okay, after Manny got put to sleep. But Amir finishes on his feet. See, that’s why I’m saying, who really can take a punch. He’s got great recuperative powers. I’ve seen so-called granite chin guys get cracked, and they don’t get back up. They need to understand all the things that make up boxing and what can happen on any given night.”
If Khan gets knocked down against Mayweather then the fight will be pretty much over, because Mayweather’s accuracy will be too precise for Khan to be able to survive. Khan survived a knockdown against Julio Diaz last April, because he was facing a former lightweight and not a legitimate welterweight with power. In Khan’s fight against Marcos Maidana, he was staggered by a right hand to the point where he was out on his feet. But Khan was ineffective after being hurt, and just taking punishment.
If Khan isn’t able to fight effectively after he’s knocked down by his opposition, then Hunter’s wasting his time by bragging about his so-called recuperative powers. Khan was knocked down by Bredis Prescott and finished off. Khan was knocked down by Julio Diaz in the 4th, and dominated for most of the remaining rounds in winning a controversial decision. Khan was staggered by Maidana in the 10th in their fight, and reduced to a clinging punching bag for the last two rounds. If that’s what Hunter calls good recuperative skills then I think he’s kidding himself. When Khan gets hurt, he stays hurt and is not effective afterwards.