Amir Khan – help me Naseem Hamed!
The announcement last week that Amir Khan would fight Marco Antonio Barrera caught everyone off-guard. Khan, after the ignominy of a knock-out by Breidis Prescott, was thought to have a lot of rebuilding his reputation, and the responsibility of being that boxer from the Olympics which everyone knows who has yet to achieve anything in the professional version had been passed to James DeGale. Now, Khan is two months away from a fight which, should he win, would turn heads – the illustrious Marco Antonio Barrera.
With so little time until the contest, Khan is straight off to the USA to prepare, having stopped only briefly at the offices of Soccer AM to talk about how important the fight would be:
"I'm fighting a legend and I'm going to train twice as hard and I'm going to go in there and show him no respect and beat him," he told Soccer AM.
"You can't show him any respect in the fight because he's going to be trying to knock my head off! Once you're in the ring and the bell goes it's all about hitting him first and not getting hit."
The last sentence alone should reassure anyone who doubts Khan's understanding of ring tactics. The contest is considered fairly even by the bookies – some favour Khan and others Barrera – so it is fortunate that Khan has access to some people in the know about defeating Barrera. Freddy Roach, his trainer, steered Manny Pacquaio to two wins against Barrera, while Pacquiao himself is a sparring partner. Roach is quite happy to help, too:
"I know the style to beat him," said Roach. "It's a great fight for us and a very winnable one. I know what type of styles he has trouble with and Amir's going to be one of those styles. We're going to have an A plan and a B plan in case he makes adjustments on us. I know Marco's a very tough fighter but it's our time. I talked with Manny already and he is OK with me taking some time off to be at the fight. I can't wait to start getting ready. We're going to have a good training camp and I know the perfect sparring partners because I've faced him twice already with Manny. We're going to have a good game plan and box smart."
Pretty emphatic, and Pacquiao will help Khan as well: "Manny will be able to give me some good advice because he's fought him twice."
That ought to be enough advice, but Khan also thinks it would be worthwhile having just one more opinion – that of Naseem Hamed, who also fought Barrera nearly eight years ago. As reported in the News of the World:
“I’m close to Naz. He speaks openly with me and I’ll see what he thinks about this fight.
“He’ll be very happy to help me and I wouldn’t be surprised if he said: ‘I’ll come to LA’. That would be brilliant. If my friend was fighting Prescott I’d tell them what mistakes I made.
“Naz knows more than me or anyone else I know about Barrera because he went 12 rounds with him at his peak.”
It somewhat overlooks the fact that Hamed went 12 rounds with Barrera, who hit him first without getting hit. Here's a little excerpt of one of the fight reviews from CBC in the US:
Marco Barrera piled up the points by landing straight, hard shots to the head Saturday night on his way to a unanimous 12-round decision over Prince Naseem Hamed. There were no knockdowns in their non-title featherweight bout, but Barrera dominated, including rocking the previously unbeaten Hamed twice in the opening round.
By the 12th, Hamed's knees wobbled as Barrera pounded him.
Barrera, who noted before the bout that he had more knockouts than Hamed had fights, shrewdly exploited his edge in experience and the lack of defence by Hamed, who held his hands at waist level and left Barrera open shots to his face.
Our advice accordingly is that Khan should hold his hands up and avoid giving Barrera open shots to the face. This advice will probably be covered at some point by Freddy Roach too, so Hamed can save adding to his carbon footprint.
Khan may also do well to reflect on the idea that being given a lesson by Prescott doesn't mean that the Brit is in any position to teach anyone how to avoid it – one would think that the repeated pounding to the ground that he took means he wasn't taking too much in.
That was the past, however, and this is the fight of the hour. Can Khan do it? Well, he has to believe that he can, even if his friends don't:
Khan revealed: “When I knew there was a possibility I could fight Barrera, my mates were like: ‘Barrera — are you sure? They’re not going to say ‘He’s better than you, he’ll beat you’, but I could see them thinking it.
“I’m going to prove them wrong. I’m going to prove everyone wrong.”
So Khan believes in himself, and has no doubts, unless “serious thoughts” about the merits of the fight are doubts. Frank Warren says as much in the Times:
"This is a huge step up for Amir who had some serious thoughts about it," Warren said. "The discussions over the fight finished at 4am this morning. This is the right fight for him at this stage of his career. I believe it will bring out the best in him."
Don't lose too much sleep over it, Amir; you have all the skills and coaching required to beat a ring legend who has started to fall from the peak of his powers. You will have to avoid being punched on the chin, and Naseem has nothing extra to offer you.
Sport without Spin - all work copyright of Mark and Rich 2008