Khan Says 155 is Perfect: I Won't Be Drained, Weak Like Before

By Steve Kim

One thing was apparent as both Saul Alvarez and Amir Khan sat next to each other on Thursday afternoon as in-studio guests of 'the 3 Knockdown Rule' podcast which is hosted by Mario Lopez - Khan isn't physically overmatched versus 'Canelo' when it comes to size.
 
In fact, he's an inch or two taller and it was noticeable just how muscular Khan was on this day. For Khan, building himself up has been an ongoing process.

Their fight takes place on May 7th from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

"I didn't want to eat myself up to that weight. I wanted to train my way up to 155," said Khan, referring to the catch-weight for this fight.

"I probably walk around at 163, 164, so that's my natural weight, to be honest. But I used to kill myself and so you never know, this might be my ideal weight being around 155 or 154. So normally I kill myself making the weight but this time I'm going into the fight happy.

"The last six to eight months, even though I've not fought for the last nine months, people think I was just at home doing nothing, I've been in the gym training, working on my mistakes, building strength."

Khan's believes that moving up in weight and not having to expend so much effort to make weight will help his punch resistance.

"I was speaking to a friend of mine, David Haye, and he said the same thing. When he was at cruiserweight he was getting put down and when he moved up to heavyweight and fought the likes of (Wladimir) Klitschko and those big guys, he was taking those punches. Sometimes making the weight and killing yourself, getting dehydrated going into a fight definitely makes you weak,''explained Khan, who comes into the fight with Alvarez with a record of 31-3(19 KO's). 

Khan  has spent the bulk of his career at junior welterweight and welterweight.

"I'm gonna go into that fight happy, not drained, not weak,"says Khan.

Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com.