By Radio Rahim
Hall of Fame trainer Freddie Roach is not ruling out the possibility of Amir Khan (31-3, 19KOs) pulling off the upset on May 7th, when he moves up by eight-pounds to challenge Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez (46-1-1, 32KOs) for the WBC middleweight title at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Khan has already been labeled as the big underdog. At 155-pounds, Canelo is viewed as being too big and too strong for Khan to handle.
Roach trained Khan for several years, so he's very familiar with the physical abilities of the British star. Khan left Roach in 2012 and hired trainer Virgil Hunter.
While some people are already celebrating a victory for Canelo, Roach is not one of them. He says Khan is a very skilled boxer who has what it takes to get the win. Roach is also very familiar with Canelo. He recently trained Miguel Cotto for his fight with Canelo last November, which the Mexican star won by way of a twelve round unanimous decision.
"Don't count Khan out completely, because he is a good boxer. But he's going to have to box a perfect fight for twelve rounds...that means he's going to have to really pay attention and stay away from this guy's power, and that's going to be really difficult for him to do," Roach told BoxingScene.com.
In the opinion of Roach, Khan's biggest flaw is his desire to stand on the inside and trade punches. If he decides to stand and trade with Canelo, the fight may not last that long. Khan also like to jump in with punches and then ties his opponent up before he can counter.
"He likes to stay in the pocket a little too long sometimes. He wont be able to tie a big strong guy up like he's done in the past with smaller guys. Canelo is very dangerous," Roach said.