By Ronnie Nathanielsz
British lightweight hopeful Amir Khan’s scheduled battle with Mexican legend Marco Antonio Barrera is on following concerns that the March 14 bout was in jeopardy after Barrera suffered a nasty cut in a tune-up bout over the weekend against last-minute substitute Freudis Rojas after Barrera’s original opponent failed to show up at the official weigh-in.
Khan’s trainer Freddie Roach told insidesports.ph, Standard Today and Viva Sports that “the fight is one hundred percent on after doctors okayed Barrera today.”
Roach said the Mexican who fought the trainer’s prized possession Manny Pacquiao twice and lost, had two stitches and the cut was not as bad as originally feared which would have resulted in a postponement of the March 14 clash set for the famous M.E.N arena with 15,000 tickets having been already sold.
Roach believes “it’s a great fight for Amir” and said the 22 year old Briton who sparred a few times with Pacquiao when the Filipino boxing hero was preparing for his megabuck fight with Oscar De La Hoya and learned a lot from the experience , will have “speed and youth on his side.”
Roach likened Khan’s advantages to what Pacquiao enjoyed “when he fought Barrera for the first time” at the Alamadome in San Antonio , Texas in November 2003 and annihilated the Mexican in eleven rounds.
Roach revealed that Khan who has a record of 19-1 with 16 knockouts would fight “ a fast-paced fight” even as Roach said they were “working hard to correct some fundamental mistakes” that Khan had made in the past especially in his shocking first round KO at the hands of Bredis Prescott last year.
Gareth Davies of the Daily Telegraph quoted Khan’s promoter Frank Warren who has been in constant touch with Barrera’s new promoter Don King as saying both he and Khan were delighted that the fight is still on.
Davies quoted Warren who said "It's a great relief to finally get confirmation that Barrera will be ready for March 14. Sometimes these problems happens in boxing and you have to get through them, but I'm delighted that the fight is on and now we can get back to business and sell the remaining tickets for what will be a great fight"
The respected boxing writer said the Khan-Barrera fight promises to be an explosive encounter between the young Bolton star and the seven time/three weight world champion.
Khan told Davies "It was a worrying few days but it's great news to hear that it's still on the original date. I was never worried that the fight wouldn't happen, at the worst it would have been delayed by a couple of weeks, but now my team are all geared up and ready for March 14. My training camp is going absolutely fantastic and I will be in the best shape of my life come fight night."
