By Edward Chaykovsky
Virgil Hunter, head trainer for British superstar Amir Khan (31-3, 19KOs) is very excited about the upcoming fight against Saul "Canelo" Alvarez, which is scheduled for May 7th at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Khan will move up in weight by eight pounds, to 155, to challenge Canelo for his WBC middleweight championship.
While his fighter is a huge underdog in the contest, Hunter is confident Khan possesses the ability and the necessary skills to walk away with a big upset win.
Hunter looks at Canelo's 2013 defeat to Floyd Mayweather Jr., which took place at a catch-weight of 152-pounds. He says Khan is physically bigger than Mayweather, longer than Mayweather and has enough punching power to get Canelo's respect in the fight.
"Amir is bigger than Floyd, longer and at this time, I know when he's in good shape, his tank is much fuller because of his age," Khan told Sky Sports News HQ. "But definitely that's the fight you want to look at and see where you can capitalise on, but also add a few edges to it that maybe Floyd didn't do that night because he had control of that fight from very early. Amir also possesses enough pop to keep him honest."
Khan has been reckless in past fights, deciding to stand his ground and exchange with hard punching opponents. That caused him to get knocked out by Danny Garcia, dropped by Julio Diaz and badly hurt by Marcos Maidana.
With Canelo, he goes up against the biggest fighter in his career. Canelo usually rehydrates to a light heavyweight level by the time he enters the ring, and even Mayweather stated that Canelo's digging shots to the body are very hard.
There are no games with this fight. Hunter says Khan is more focused than he's very been in his life.
"He is focused," Hunter said. "When I tell him what can get him in danger or create a problem, I think he has a very great chance of winning the fight."
