By Keith Idec
NEW YORK – The prevailing feeling is that Canelo Alvarez will knock out Amir Khan in their middleweight title fight May 7 in Las Vegas.
Mexico’s Alvarez is a 5-1 favorite largely because Khan technically is moving up two weight classes to challenge him and has been knocked out in lightweight and junior welterweight fights by Breidis Prescott and Danny Garcia, respectively. Khan, however, thinks that move actually could make him less susceptible to a knockout, not more vulnerable.
Without draining himself to make the 155-pound limit for their HBO Pay-Per-View main event, Khan (31-3, 19 KOs) expects to feel fresher and stronger than usual once he enters the ring to challenge Alvarez (46-1-1, 32 KOs) at T-Mobile Arena. Khan has never weighed in at more than 147 pounds for any of his 34 professional fights and has weighed in at more than 142 for just three of those bouts.
“Since I’ve moved up to 147, I’ve never been dropped at 147,” Khan said during a promotional stop earlier this week. “I’ve been hit with some big shots at 147 as well. So it just depends, really, on how you make weight. I honestly believe that most things have to do with how you make weight. I’ve never been put down in sparring. I’ve fought the biggest guys in sparring – from [Alfredo] Angulo to bigger guys.
“It’s just that I used to kill myself making the weight. It sneaks up [on you]. It weakens you. You go into the ring with weak legs and stuff as well because obviously you’ve been drained down. So hydration is a massive thing here.”
The 29-year-old Khan walks around at about 165 pounds. The Bolton, England, native said he expects to weigh about 160 once his fight against Alvarez starts.
“Having to lose all that muscle, maybe I overworked myself to get down to [lower weights],” Khan said. “So maybe that could’ve been the downfall of me getting hurt or getting put down, or getting tagged sometimes toward the end [of fights]. … I’ve been making weight since when I was an amateur. I never used to get hurt in them days. But sometimes weight makes a massive difference. I do think this could be the ideal weight for me.”
Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
