by James Slater – In less than three week’s time, 22-year-old Amir Khan will attempt to become Great Britain’s second reigning world champion, as he takes on the respected Andreas Kotelnik of Ukraine. The once-beaten former Olympian will try his best to take the WBA light-welterweight crown from the 31-year-old who also managed to win a silver medal as an Olympic amateur..
If Khan is successful, he will join Carl Froch, the WBC ruler at 168-pounds, as his country’s only world boxing champions. However, in talking to SKY Sports, who will show the June 27th fight, Kotelnik says Khan has no chance of beating him, and that in truth Amir shouldn’t even be in the same ring as him as he has done nothing to earn the privilege.
Kotelnik, 31-2-1(13), has also vowed to KO Khan at The O2 Arena in London.
“What has Khan done apart from beating up an old man in Marco Antonio Barrera and getting knocked out by someone no-one had heard of?” Kotelnik said, when clearly referring to the Breidis Prescott fight of last September. “Everyone is talking about Khan like he is some kind of pound-for-pound legend, but they won’t be after I’ve knocked him out for the second time in his career.
“To be honest, he shouldn’t really be in the sane ring as me, because I am an established world champion and he is just a child who has had a couple of lucky wins. He’s a little boy and I am going to take him back to school on June 27th and give him a painful lesson.”
This is by far the most nasty the WBA champion has ever got when it comes to hyping up an upcoming challenger or opponent. The question is, is Kotelnik doing nothing more than attempting to drum up publicity for the big fight, or does he really feel Khan is a pushover?
In the past, opponents of Khan have said similar things to what Kotelnik is saying, only to be made to pay for such disrespect.
Kotelnik does say he has respect for Khan for taking the fight, but that he will have fun defeating him.
“I’ve got plenty of respect for him for taking the fight – because he is going to be in for a miserable night,” Kotelnik said. “It’s going to be fun and easy for me because Khan is nothing special at all.
“I can’t see the fight going beyond six-rounds, and if I land early I’ll knock him out even quicker than Prescott did. Everyone in Britain is desperate for another world champion, but they will be disappointed on June 27th when they see their hero being defeated.”
Again, this is the nastiest Kotelnik has ever sounded in the run up to a big fight – and due to the way he has been talking, there is no doubt he will be greeted to nothing but a chorus of boos when he enters the ring two weeks on Saturday.
Whether or not his affects the champion remains to be seen. One thing looks clear though; Amir Khan will have an angry man trying his best to dismantle him as he defends his world title for the third time.