Amir Khan-Andriy Kotelnik: The Post-Fight Report Card

[crold1]

He did the same thing with the body shots. I don't care what anyone says, there is no strategic reason not to turn over a body shot. Perhaps what Kahn was doing was not what Freddy was teaching him in the gym, he did seem to be fighting a frantic pace, but Freddie as a good coach should have anticipated that.

To Kahns credit, his movement was excellent, and he seemed to be using a fair bit more lateral movement on the offense, but over all, I was not impressed.

He looked amateurish tonight. Far more so than a fighter with 22 professional fights should look.

Agree there which is why I took some exception with the scoring. Khan is a fighter in transition, learning new things while still having solid athletic talent. Whether he can master it before he gets blasted again is why to watch.

[mikescfld]

I thought Khan and Pac will be a good fight

[Dave Rado]

Yes...and Hatton-Khan, based on what Hatton has generated at the gate to date and what Khan is doing is bigger than those fights $ wise.

Note I didn't say better.

Not viewing audience wise - those round robin fights involving Eubank et al got more than 10m viewers per fight. Hatton's biggest fights get just over 1m viewers.

The only reason Hatton makes more $ is because of pay per view revenues; but PPV is damaging boxing's mainstream appeal. In the free to air days, everyone followed those big fights, not just died-in-the-wool boxing fans. That is no longer true, which is sad.

[MOTHER DUCKER]

He did the same thing with the body shots. I don't care what anyone says, there is no strategic reason not to turn over a body shot. Perhaps what Kahn was doing was not what Freddy was teaching him in the gym, he did seem to be fighting a frantic pace, but Freddie as a good coach should have anticipated that.

To Kahns credit, his movement was excellent, and he seemed to be using a fair bit more lateral movement on the offense, but over all, I was not impressed.

He looked amateurish tonight. Far more so than a fighter with 22 professional fights should look.

I think that was the plan and lets face it, it worked to fight sort of like he did in the amateurs. Klotenik had his hands round his head and his defence was well known, im waiting to see what Khan's power is like vs someone who's defence/chin is not as rock solid.

Will people who don't have there gloves round there chin 24/7 be able to stand his combos?

[BetterCallSaul]

Khan looked great, to say he looked amateurish is just plain wrong. He won 10 out of 12 rounds, and did it with ease, hardly putting a foot wrong. Nobody has ever dominated Kotelnik the way Khan did. Plus his work to the body was excellent.

Very good perfromance from Khan. Expect to see more from him.

[CiganoBoxer]

Yes...and Hatton-Khan, based on what Hatton has generated at the gate to date and what Khan is doing is bigger than those fights $ wise.

Note I didn't say better.

I just don't see it .....Benn V Eubank 2 got a 17 million TV audience and 50 thousand fans went too see it !
because of hatton they might get the same at the gate ...but i bet they dont get the same amount watching on TV !
Benn and Eubank hated one another lol thats why every man woman and child wanted to watch them !

[MickyHatton]

For me the interesting thing was that Khan was able to be controlled in this fight. In fights gone by he has been aggressive and almost manic which assisted in his downfall to Prescott.

Under Roach he seems disciplined and should develop further. To win any form of the World title at 22 is impressive but the jury is still out on him.

[Isola]

Benn-Eubank was massive in the UK, Hatton-Khan wouldn't ever come near it in terms of anything except PPV revenues, which weren't a factor in the early 90's.

Being 28 now, it was the Eubank-Benn-Watson rivalry that first got me watching and excited by boxing in the first place and I'm sure that was the case for many more kids around my age.

The whole country was watching it then; as much as a Hatton Vs Khan fight would generate a lot of interest amongst UK boxing fans, that's nowhere near the level of the early 90's UK SMW scene which was appealing to the avarage bloke in the street. As someone else here already said, the fact that Benn and Eubank genuinely seemed to hate each other drew a lot of people in.

More money doesn't always equate to 'bigger'.

[Drunk Punch]

A near masterful counter-boxing display. Khan has worked on every aspect of his style, his movement was fantastic, he controlled almost every aspect of the fight. I think he fought the perfect fight against a very able opponent.

[TOMA BOXIMG]

Khan is going to be like joe calzg in america, no one seems to like him incuding me

I think a mere can still sucks. He is going to be put in fights where he has everyadvantage and has no threat. Kinda like andre berto. Make no mistake once these guys face a boxer puncher it is going to be lights out