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Amir Khan has been on the brink of fighting Floyd Mayweather three times already, but in each of those times he’s come out empty handed. On Saturday, Britain’s King Khan looks to come up with a homerun performance that will finally land him the fight he’s been long asking for. Standing in between Khan and a date with boxing’s Money Man is American Chris Algieri, the underdog of underdogs who shocked Ruslan Provodnikov last year. The two will fight for Khan’s WBC Silver Welterweight title on May 29th at the Barclays Center in New York.
Is the Fourth Time The Charm?
Khan has literally thrown himself into the Floyd Mayweather Jr. Sweepstakes but has been thrice bypassed by boxing’s ultimate Money Man. Twice last year, Mayweather fought Argentine Marcos Maidana and then logically chose to fight Manny Pacquiao last May 2 in the richest bout in boxing history. With Mayweather having fought virtually all the big names available, the Bolton, England native however, is hoping that the fourth time will be his charm.
Khan is coming off four consecutive wins after his shocking 4th round TKO loss to Danny Garcia in 2012. The former WBA and IBF light welterweight titleholder scored a lopsided unanimous decision win over former IBF Welterweight champion Devon Alexander in his most recent bout last December 13th. He has not lost a bout since going under the wings of famed trainer Virgil Hill after the Garcia defeat. If Khan gets by Garcia, he will once again be in the running to land Mayweather’s next and perhaps last fight.
Against All Odds
Always being doubted because of his good lucks, college degree and kickboxing background, Chris Algieri has always been fighting the odds. None was more significant when he challenged then WBO light welterweight champion Ruslan Provodnikov last June. Algieri survived a damaged eye in the first round of the fight and tons of heavy blows from the Siberian Rocky to come away with a stunning split decision win. Undefeated and coming off the biggest win of his career, Algieri vacated the title and embarked on yet another bigger challenge: fighting Manny Pacquiao in Macau. Algieri was overwhelmed and overmatched by the Filipino dynamo who dealt him his first professional boxing career loss last November 2014.
Despite the one-sided unanimous decision loss to Pacman, Algieri showed a lot of courage by getting up from a total of six knockdowns. He got hit by 107 more power punches and was able to land just 108 out of 469 total punches thrown. Despite all these disadvantages, Algieri lived to see the final round and hear the final bell against the highly favored Pacquiao.
Who Takes This?
For the third consecutive fight, Aglieri enters the ring as a massive underdog. He is a +850 in this one while Khan is the overwhelming favorite at -1800. But as we said earlier, this is nothing new to Chris Algieri. Against Khan, Algieri must avoid the toe-to-toe confrontations because as in his fight against Provo and Pacman, he got outslugged and got drilled hard. What Algieri did to Provodnikov in the latter stages of their fight was keep his distance and pick his shots. Against Khan, that may be his only chance.
Khan’s natural instinct is a brawler and that’s what got him in trouble against Bredies Prescott, Lamont Peterson and Danny Garcia. But as we’ve seen in his last three fights, Khan has been a controlled boxer under Virgil Hunter. The “new” Amir Khan utilizes the ring and uses his full arsenal of boxing skills to beat his opponents. Now that’s what Algieri wants. However, Khan should realize during the fight that his opponent doesn’t have the power of a true welterweight because he isn’t one. Once he figures that out, Khan should stop Algieri in the middle rounds and get his homerun win.
