

By Ryan Burton
Super lightweight contender Ashley Theophane is counting down the days leading to his first world title shot. He faces WBA super lightweight champion Adrien Broner on April 1st in a Spike TV televised fight.
Theophane (39-6-1) has persevered in the sport and in 5 weeks will enter the ring in the biggest fight of his of his life.
"It is great. It has been 13 years of work but I am finally here. It proves that hard work pays off so I am looking forward to it," said Theophane.
While many are counting out Theophane's countryman Amir Khan (31-3, 19KOs) in his May 7th pay-per-view showdown against Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez (46-1-1, 32KOs), Theophane feels that if Khan uses his advantages, he has a chance to pull off the upset.
Khan, who never fought beyond the welterweight limit of 147-pounds, will move up to a catch-weight of 155 to challenge Canelo for the WBC middleweight championship. There is no rehydration clause, which is going to allow Canelo to put on as much weight as he wants by the time he enters the ring, and that factor concerns Theophane a bit.
"It is a great fight. As I said, all boxers want to challenge themselves and he is a big underdog but he is a two-time champ. He will trouble him with speed. It is just that Canelo is very strong but Khan can trouble him with speed. It isn't the eight pounds (that Khan is moving up). It is Canelo's fight weight on the fight date. I think that Khan will still have the speed but he will have to minimize getting hit," Theophane told BoxingScene.com.
Send questions or comments to ringsidewriter@gmail.com. You can follow Ryan on Twitter @ringsidewriter