Andre Ward: A lot of People Writing Khan Off, That's a Mistake

By Edward Chaykovsky

In two weeks, Amir Khan (31-3, 19KOs) will step in the ring as a big underdog when he takes on WBC middleweight champion Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez (46-1-1, 32KOs) at the T-Mobile Arena for Las Vegas.

Khan will move up by eight pounds to a catch-weight of 155-pounds.

The British boxer has been inactive since winning a twelve round decision over Chris Algieri last May in New York. Canelo fought in November when he captured his WBC title by defeating Miguel Cotto with a twelve round unanimous decision.

Since 2012, Khan has been trained by Vigil Hunter, who is best known as the head trainer for Olympic gold medal winner Andre Ward.

While the majority of the experts are predicting a one-sided contest in favor of Canelo, Ward is not one of them. He expects a very entertaining fight where both fighters are taking a big risk.

"I think Amir respects Canelo and I think that Amir in his whole career has acted like a fighter, which is look for the biggest and best challenges. Some times you look at that big challenge and sometimes you fail, and sometimes you succeed, but you have to respect Amir daring to be great," Ward told On The Ropes Boxing Radio.

"I see a lot of people writing him off and I think that’s a mistake, I think Amir is plenty big. Does he have to fight the right fight? Absolutely, but this isn’t a fight where Canelo Alvarez can go in here and not have his guards up and not be on point either. It’s a great fight for both guys, you gotta take your hat off to both guys for taking this risk."

"Canelo is taking a risk, Amir is no pushover. These are the types of fights we clamor for, and I just think that instead of rushing to judgment and trying to be the first to say that, “This guy doesn’t have a shot,” I just think that people should build excitement about the fight because we don’t know what’s going to happen and just enjoy and lets see what happens."