by T.K. Stewart

 

Beginning immediately, Freddie Roach is taking over the training reigns of the recently humiliated Amir Khan who was practically eviscerated in less than a round by the unheralded Breidis Prescott last month.

 

Roach claims that Khan, just 21 years old, is a very good fighter and that from his point-of-view the young Brit doesn't have as far to go as many may think before he could be wearing a world championship belt.

 

"He is a good fighter and he has good ability, " says Roach of his newest charge.  "He has good skills and he really does have tremendous speed.  He's starting to learn to punch with power but he just needs to learn how to set up his punches a bit better."

 

Khan, 18-1 (14)KO's, has been laughed at by many critics who have put a label on him as having a China chin or a glass jaw.  Roach, obviously, has heard the criticisms but he says even if Khan doesn't have the strongest chin that there are ways around that.

 

"I've worked with fighters who haven't had the greatest chins in the world," said Roach.  "So defensively we'll have to work on all of that, of course.  What we'll have to do is to make sure that we don't put ourselves into a bad position in a fight.  The whole thing of it is that we'll have to show him how to set things up, set his knockout punches up.  He just can't go in there recklessly to try and overwhelm the guys." 

 

In Khan's defense, Roach uses the example of his prized pupil, Manny Pacquiao.

 

"The thing is, Manny Pacquiao got knocked out before he was world champion - twice," said Roach.  "Manny was able to come back and become a great world champion.  It's not impossible for Khan to make it back, but it's going to be a lot of hard work."

 

Roach blamed Khan's knockout loss on his being too aggressive and being too anxious to prove himself in trying to blow his opponent out of the ring.  Roach feels that bringing Khan to the Wild Card Gym and having him train and spar with other world class fighters will likely be the type of thing that will improve Khan's game.  It will also give Roach a chance to see what he has to do in order to make Amir be all that he can be.

 

"I won't know where he is until I see him sparring and then we'll know better once we see him in a fight," says Roach.  "He'll be tested at the Wild Card, we have quality sparring partners and I think that's one thing he's been lacking in the past.  He'll have world-class people around him at all times.  It's a great atmosphere to work in because we have 3 or 4 world champions there. 

 

And just who will Khan spar with?

 

"He will spar with Pacquiao sometimes," said Roach. 

 

Khan will return to the ring on December 13th at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, England against an opponent yet to be named. 

 

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