Insider Notebook: Khan Rips Bradley; Lara's Beef; More

By Robert Morales

Amir Khan not only has evolved into one of the top super lightweights in the world, he has become one of the most intriguing and colorful interviews. Just the type of combination that makes a superstar.

Khan on Tuesday played host to a workout at Wild Card Gym in Hollywood, where he is trained by Freddie Roach. A number of subjects were broached, but Khan perhaps was most impressive when discussing the failed effort to get him matched with fellow world champion Timothy Bradley in a title unification bout. It has been widely reported that Bradley turned down $1.4 million to fight Khan, who a week from Saturday will instead take on Zab Judah in a title unification fight at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas (on HBO).

Khan politely said Bradley turned down the fight because he didn't want to lose his hardware. He also offered some interesting advice for the two-belt champion from Palm Springs.

"Still, until now, I never had the truth," said Khan, when asked why he thinks Bradley turned down the fight. "But I really think Bradley knew that he was going to get beat. He's not exciting or anything, so I think the only reason Bradley  didn't take the fight is because he knew he was going to get the titles taken off him.

"And if that happened, then no one would want to know about him. And he just about fills 2,000-seat arenas; that's in his hometown as well. You know, he's not going to get bigger fights. He might not even get 2,000 in the arenas."

Khan is referring to Bradley's three fairly recent fights at the Agua Caliente Casino near Palm Springs. It holds about 2,000.

Anyway, Khan said he would still like to fight Bradley but, "You know that he won't take the fight."

Khan intimated Bradley made a big mistake from a career standpoint. His logic made sense, too.

"Bradley has been out of the game since January," Khan said of Bradley's fight that month against Devon Alexander. "He's been out a long time and I think it will be even longer. I don't think it's good for him and good for his image to walk away from a fight, saying how good he was, because he needs to stay active. I think he's already about 27, is he?.

"He's at that age now where he's peaking. And he needs to stay active and if I was him, I'd be fighting three times a year."

The ship is sailing without Bradley, Khan intimated.

"There are so many big names you can face, and so much money you can make," Khan said. "He's had great support from HBO and everyone, but he just didn't want to take the fight. In this fight he was going to make a lot, a lot of money. I even offered him 50 percent of the UK revenue, which he turned down. I don't know what the problem is there."

Bradley did not return a phone call seeking comment.

On His Way To The Promised Land

Some fighters would say that the pinnacle of a career is winning a world title. But Khan spoke in stirring tones about being a lot more than just a world champion. 

"I've always said I want to be known as a great fighter in the world and I think slowly it's happening," said Khan, 24, of England. "I think you have to come to America if you want to be a big name in boxing. You have to come to America and fight over here and win big fights here. When you are a name in America, you are globally a big name."

The only way to attain that status, Khan said, is to work his behind off and put together unforgettable victories. 

"You just have to keep training hard and putting good performances on," said Khan, who has fought just twice in the U.S.

"One thing I've realized is one bad performance can just take all the good performances away and that happens a lot. So I have to keep on top of my game and I have to keep winning and I have to keep winning excitingly, make people sit on the edges of their seats and they can say, 'Wow, this kid's good.'

"I want everyone to say that because one bad performance, people are going to think, 'Oh, he's just a normal world champion.' And I don't want to be known as just a world champion. I want to be known as one of the best world champions out there."

What About Judah?

Some in the know - such as trainer Roger Mayweather and fellow UK fighters Paul McCloskey (who Khan beat in April) and Junior Witter - have said that Khan is in trouble against Judah. Roach and Khan aren't buying any of it. Roach, in particular, isn't all that impressed with Judah's recent success. 

"Well, I guess they're looking at it as Zab has a lot more experience," Roach said. "He's coming off two wins (over Lucas Martin Matthysse and Kaizer Mabuza). How good were those wins? I've been studying the tapes and I'm not really impressed all that much. But I believe he's shown improvement with his new trainer (Pernell) Whitaker.

"It looks like he's rededicated himself and he's left-handed with power. And a lot of people are still under the impression that Amir can't take a punch and so forth. I'm not worried about any of those things. I'm just concentrating really on Amir and the strategy of how to beat this guy and how to fight this southpaw and how you attack him from angles."

Roach then hung a not-so-flattering jacket on the 33-year-old Judah (41-6, 28 KOs).

"We've got a great game plan and and I'm very confident that we're going to knock out this guy because any big fight he's ever been in, he's always choked," Roach said, no doubt referring to Judah's losses to Kostya Tszyu, Cory Spinks, Carlos Baldomir, Floyd Mayweather Jr., Miguel Cotto and Joshua Clottey.

"This is another big fight. And we will be the better fighter that night, I feel."

It sounded like Khan is glad some think Judah is going to win.

"I think that's just going to motivate me because it makes me come and train harder and it makes me work harder and when I'm going to be in the fight, I want to win more than probably Zab does," he said. "I want to prove all those people wrong. I mean, I'm not going to say that much to him at the fight; my fists do all the talking.

"And I want to shut them all up when I get the win in the fight."

As for any remaining notion that he can't take a punch because of his first-round knockout loss to Breidis Prescott nearly three years ago, Khan scoffed. He suggested naysayers look at how he survived the 10th-round onslaught of Marcos Maidana, who hurt Khan in that round when they tangled last December in a fight won by Khan via unanimous decision. 

"I think in that fight I proved so much, you know, taking sots, giving shots back and power and speed and everything," Khan said. "Putting Marcos down (in the first round) and him catching me in the 10th round with a big shot and how I recovered from that. I proved a lot and I always knew that myself, I had that in me, I can take a shot and everything."

Khan (25-1, 17 KOs) noted that when he was stopped by Prescott, it was at lightweight, and he said he was killing himself to make that weight. He moved up to super lightweight two years ago this month. And he said he feels stronger than ever.

"I'm going to knock Judah out in this fight," Khan said. "And I'm only going to go for the knockout. I'm going to be smart and I know the knockout will come itself, really. I don't really have to go looking for it. I know it will come and I want to win this fight in a good style where people will start thinking, 'Wow, Amir Khan not only beat Judah, he took him apart and knocked him out.' "

Lara-Williams Fiasco

By now there probably isn't a boxing fan in the world who hasn't heard about last Saturday's junior middleweight fight  between Paul Williams and Erislandy Lara of Cuba at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City. By virtually all accounts of the fight - meaning HBO broadcasters and print reporters - Lara won. But Williams took home a majority decision.

Dan Goossen, who promotes Williams, sounded a bit shell-shocked when discussing the hoopla via telephone Tuesday. 

"There has been a hell of a firestorm," Goossen said. "I can't believe what's been happening. I'm trying to be nice now. The thing about it is I've never disputed the fact that it could have gone either way. It was that close of a fight, at least in my eyes."

Goossen said he was stunned when he heard HBO announcers were ripping Williams, and that HBO's unofficial scorer Harold Lederman had it 9-3 for Lara.

"I thought that was way off base and it created a whirlwind of controversy when it didn't have to," Goossen said. 

Goossen talked about how a small ripple turned into a tidal wave.

"In today's electronic world, people are tweeting their thoughts immediately," Goossen said. "It is something similar to what happens on the air with HBO. Bob Papa says something, Max Kellerman says something and Roy Jones chimes in and all of a sudden they're on the same page. It just seemed like this took on a life of its own.

"The three people in the arena who weren't connected to the internet or speaking to any other party or consulting with  anyone were the three judges, who were very close in their scoring.

There is something to be said about that. There is something when you have your own box and are not influenced by anyone."

Goossen said that both guys fought their hearts out and that both could have come away with the victory. 

"I certainly don't want to have the winner if I thought I had the loser," he said. "But I believe Paul pulled it out in the 12th round."

Judge Al Bennett scored it a draw, 114-114. But Hilton Whitaker Jr. and Donald Givens gave it to Williams by respective scores of 115-114 and 116-114.

Golden Boy Disagrees

Not surprisingly, the folks from Golden Boy Promotions - Lara's promoter - aren't in line with Goossen. Golden Boy executive David Itskowitch also spoke to BoxingScene.com via telephone Tuesday. He was less than thrilled that his fighter took his first loss.

"Our thought is that Lara won the fight," Itskowitch said. "I saw it 9-3. If you give Williams the benefit of the doubt in every round, maybe it was 8-4. But I thought it was a pretty solid 9-3."

Itskowitch wants Lara (15-1-1, 10 KOs) to get another shot at Williams.

"The kid wants a rematch," he said. "We would like for him to have a rematch. Hopefully, we can get it done. If we can't,  we move on and hope he is treated as the winner of the fight in his next fight, that he commands a purse and compensation that is reflective of the fact that despite what those three judges saw - or two judges - that he was the winner of the fight."

It's doubtful that will happen. When asked what is next for Williams, Goossen's retort said a lot. 

"A right-hander," he said.

Lara is a southpaw, as was Sergio Martinez, who knocked out Williams in the second round last November.

A Taste of Chocolate

Also present at Tuesday's Wild Card Gym workout was super middleweight contender Peter "Kid Chocolate" Quillin of Brooklyn via Grand Rapids, Mich. Quillin is hopeful he will still be able to fight on the Khan-Judah undercard after his original opponent pulled out with a rib injury. In eye-balling the future, he also took a shot at Williams.

"All I'm looking to do is fight right now and just going out there and create moments that people can remember so I can move toward opportunities like the Sergio Martinez's or even Paul Williams who, for me, talked very arrogant about winning a fight that I don't even think he won," said Quillin, 28. 

"With that, I think he should have said, maybe, 'It's not up to me, it's up to the judges.' But don't speak out and say that you won the fight when you know you didn't."