Canelo Alvarez vs. Amir Khan: Fight preview, inside look, expert pick
Canelo Alvarez and Amir Khan will meet on Saturday in Las Vegas for the WBC middleweight title in a classic matchup of speed and power.
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2 min read
How Khan wins: Khan needs to keep this fight in the middle of the ring and give himself space to take advantage of his foot and hand speed. He knows that standing toe-to-toe with Canelo and trading punches is not how he wins this fight and the ropes will not be his friend in this one.
He needs to take a page from Floyd Mayweather's book and dart around the ring, accumulating a lead in punches landed with his jab and being smart about when he looks to move in and land power shots. He also has to know when to jab and bounce back to stay out of Alvarez's range. If he does that, he'll win a lot of rounds by dictating the pace and out-landing Canelo, even if his punches aren't doing significant damage.
Khan said he wants to change angles on Canelo and look for opportunities to hit him with power shots that Alvarez isn't expecting, knowing that the punch you don't see is usually the one that does the most damage -- and can even result in a knockout.
Those opportunities might not come in the first few rounds, but if he can avoid Canelo with good, slick defense and consistent pressure with the jab, he might be able to frustrate Alvarez into pressing and getting reckless in moving forward and catch him with a big power shot.
Prediction: Canelo by 10th round TKO.
I want to believe in Khan, I really do. He's a terrific fighter, but I'm not convinced that he's going to be able to handle Alvarez's power for the full fight at 155 pounds.
It won't surprise me if Khan gets up on the cards in the first three or four rounds as Canelo figures out how to get him to the ropes, but as the fight wears on, I expect Alvarez to become more confident in his ability to walk through Khan's shots. Once that happens, he will start controlling the action and landing big shots.
Against Danny Garcia -- the last time Khan was knocked out -- he wasn't able to hit Garcia with big enough power shots to keep Garcia from coming forward. Khan's defense has improved and he knows the dangers of trying to trade with Canelo like he did with Garcia, but as the fight wears on, I think Canelo, who is used to carrying 155 pounds, will wear down Khan and eventually land the big right hand that puts Khan on the canvas.
