By Edward Chaykovsky
British star Amir Khan is picking Saul "Canelo" Alvarez (48-1-1, 34 KOs) to defeat Gennady "GGG" Golovkin (36-0, 33 KOs) if the fight comes together for the fall of this year.
Khan, who moved up to a catch-weight of 155-pounds, stepped in the ring with Canelo in May of last year and was knocked out cold in the sixth round.
Khan was able to use his speed and boxing ability to take the early rounds, but Canelo's size and strength was slowly taking over and eventually he drilled Khan with a massive counter to the chin.
Golovkin and Canelo are discussing the possibility of fighting this coming September during Mexican Independence Day weekend. They seem to be apart on the money. Canelo and Golden Boy Promotions have offered a flat-fee for the HBO Pay-Per-View mega-bout, while Golovkin wants a percentage of the revenue.
Golovkin is scheduled to defend his IBF, IBO, WBA, WBC middleweight belts in a mandatory fight against Daniel Jacobs on March 18th at New York's Madison Square Garden.
A lot of fans believe Canelo is running away from the fight and doing everything possible to further delay the encounter with Golovkin.
Khan says Canelo is being underestimated in the fight, and he completely backs him to win.
"I think a lot of people underestimate Canelo. Canelo is a good fighter. He's very strong. He moves quite well. I give that fight to Canelo honestly. I even underestimate Canelo before fighting him. Even if Canelo fought Triple G, I honestly think he beats Triple G. A lot of people underestimate him, I don't know why," Khan told ES News.
"I've been in the ring with Canelo. I've never been in the ring with Triple G, but I've been in the ring with Canelo and he's hard to hit. He's quite tricky and like I said he hits very hard, so you have to give him that respect. I think that he gives a lot of people problems."
Canelo is also in talks to face countryman Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. at a catch-weight of 165-pounds on May 6th. Khan also picks Canelo to win in that contest as well. Khan used to train side by side with Chavez Jr. several years ago - when both of them were trained by Freddie Roach.
"And yeah he'll beat Chavez. I like Chavez. He's a friend of mine from the Wild Card and we trained together. But I just think that he has that style [that Canelo can exploit] and he's a little more fluid," Khan said.
