11.09.07 – By Rahul Deb: No one in the sporting world, is unaware of the capability of the British to distort the global image of their indigenous talent. It takes but a few wins against mediocre opposition before the British press starts hailing the next world champion. Much touted heavyweight great Frank Bruno who racked up 21 consecutive KOs against less than stellar opposition, was knocked out in his first moderate move up in class against James ‘Bonecrusher’ Smith. The ‘Dancing Destroyer’ Herbie Hide knocked out tomato cans (much to the delight of the British press) all the way to a title shot, before getting schooled by Bowe and subsequently getting comprehensively beaten up, by anyone able to land a couple of stiff jabs.
Olympic gold medalist, Audley “A-Force” Harrison got a 1 million pound deal from the BBC, before he even threw a punch as a professional. His career if anything is truly a testament to the optimism of the British media and the patience of the British fans. Featherweight Michael Brodie, middleweight Howard Eastman and Olympic bronze medalist Robin Reid were also unable to live up to the hype.
The undoubtedly talented Amir Khan suffers from similar problems as some of the above mentioned fighters. The darling of the British media, he seems to be moving up in class relatively quickly (at least on paper). However, one needs to take a closer look at the numbers. Khan’s opponents have been carefully picked to have the following two characteristics – impressive records on paper against moderate to poor opposition; and the inability to break an eggplant with either fist. The combined record of his opponents is 185-107-11, which isn’t bad for a guy who is 13-0. The telling figure however is their knockout percentage. His opponents have a combined 51 knockouts in a total of 303 fights (16.8 %). More importantly these knockouts have constituted a mere 51 out of the 185 victories (27.6 %).
It is surprising that the ‘next big thing’ in the lightweight division has already suffered two knockdowns against such hand-picked opposition. They came against Richard Drizlane (10-0 with 0 kos at the time) and against Willie Limond (28-1 with 8 kos). The first knockdown was a flash knockdown whereas Khan was hurt and hanging on against Limond. With all due respect, Drizlane and Limond’s poor knockout record is even more telling given the poor quality of their opposition. His next opponent is Scott Lawton who has the seemingly impressive record of 20-3-1. Once again not surprisingly Lawton has only 4 wins by knockout, 3 of which were in his first 9 fights.
As long as Khan’s opposition consists of fighters unable to hurt an average middle aged man he can use the same skill and quickness that won him the silver medal in the Olympics. He will probably work on and improve his defence, unfortunately even Manny Steward has no training routine for a glass jaw. As soon as he moves up in class, against fighters that posses knockout power he will face the same fate of former British greats Bruno, Harrison and Hide. After all, who can forget the dramatic knockout of Hide by Vitali Klitschko from a punch that at best gently grazed the side of Hide’s head. One only wonders, if the knockout of the century was on offer had that right hand whizzed past Hide’s chin instead. Perhaps, getting savagely knocked out is Khan’s ticket to making history.