Khan-Marquez May 15th in Vegas

[Autobarn]

If Khan beat Maidana, how many on here would just say it was a mismatch because Maidana lost to Kotelnik?

i wouldn't, as it's a different kind of fight altogether. maidana is beyond dispute a dangerous, top 10 world class light welter. he won a spectacular fight vs victor ortiz on HBO and could pick up a reputation as a batterer of prospects. as such, he'd a credible opponent, as a world title fight and a TV fight, especially when the main question re khan is his chin.

if khan was going to dump the belt he was going to need a big name like marquez. now it looks like marquez is defending his lightweight championship vs katsidis. i think they have gone to absurd lengths to avoid fighting maidana, and IMO it reflects badly on khan as a world champion. and now he's not even fighting marquez?

[Autobarn]

david haye has some chin problems. what would we think of him if he steered clear of all punchers?

what would we have thought of lewis is he'd taken the "diplomatic route" rather than face razor ruddock?

[tonyevs]

Maidana is no great shakes in the skills dept. He certainly is no Sugar Ray. I think most people on here know his only strengths are his KO power and ruggedness.

But he won his position to face off for the World title in legitimate circumstances. Not by paying his way for an easy route as Khan did.

If Khan was to face and beat Maidana, for me it wouldn`t be any big badge of greatness .. as said, even Kotenik has shown Maidana can be outboxed. But by Khan seeming to want to avoid Maidana?? .. well that says a lot more.

[Autobarn]

maidana is a puncher, and this, it seems, is enough to avoid him. despite his terrible lack of basic skill, he is strong, tough and can hit very hard.

[jamesmcdonnell]

My goodness there are some monumental whingers on here. If you don't think a Khan v Marquez fight to be a great match-up, you are a moron.

JMM has one of the careers of the last decade, has fought everyone, can bang and only last year was in a war with Diaz. I know FMJ schooled him, but that was based on weight and handspeed, not any discernable signs of him slowing down.

I've no idea if the fight will happen, but if it does, full props to Khan. It makes far more sense than a Maidana fight.

I think that it's clear though that above 135, Marquez just isn't big enough - Khan will have significant physical advantages, and it's a shame that Marquez is having to kow tow to Khan considering his reputation.

At 135, I'd pick Marquez, at 140 he still has a good chance, but I favour Khan.

[Autobarn]

i think marquez has been "the opponent" for a while now.

when golden boy put together marquez v juan diaz, they put it in a little ring in texas - to suit diaz. i believe they were sacrificing marquez to build diaz. it didn't happen, ppl started to talk of marquez being the best p4p fighter in the world and it looks like GBP basically used him to gte a piece of mayweather, at a foolish (for marquez) weight.

basically khan is still looking to fight smaller men, it seems. the fight with marquez is off, isn't it? i thought it was marquez v katsidis now...

[Datsue]

the fight with marquez is off, isn't it? i thought it was marquez v katsidis now...

It's still going round & round & round.

Last I heard Marquez was fighting Khan (again), Maidana's fighting Vitor Manuel Cayo (who'll beat him, I think) & Katsidis is fighting Robert Guerrero (I mean, WTF?).

I am beginning to lose all interest in this bizarre merry-go-round rumour-mill thingie, & propose a moratorium until the matter is settled, particularly on who's ducking whom, who is & isn't a fraud, who is taking advantage of whom et cetera et cetera...

[tonyevs]

[quote="Autobarn"]i think marquez has been "the opponent" for a while now.

quote]

sadly that has been the case for a very long time. But Marquez has been able to spoil the party many times .. sadly, at 140lb he is above what even his superb skills can overcome.

[Counter-puncher]

& Katsidis is fighting Robert Guerrero (I mean, WTF?).

understatement of the week.

[dom74]

He will become known for fighting over-the-hill legends and hand picked opponents. I really don't want to dislike Khan as I think he has a very exciting style so I hope he mans up.

well said

We should be grateful we have an exciting young world champion like Khan, not look to put him down at every oppurtunity. He is only 23yrs and still developing as a fighter. So what if there are fights out there which are maybe too much for him at the moment (maidana/bradley). What is so wrong with taking good fights against men he can only benefit being in the ring with and try to hone his skills to be ready for when he has to face a better man, especially as 140lb is taking the 1st steps to unification. We should be a lot more supportive of Khan and not so quick to critisize IMO

[tonyevs]

well said

We should be grateful we have an exciting young world champion like Khan, not look to put him down at every oppurtunity. He is only 23yrs and still developing as a fighter. So what if there are fights out there which are maybe too much for him at the moment (maidana/bradley). What is so wrong with taking good fights against men he can only benefit being in the ring with and try to hone his skills to be ready for when he has to face a better man, especially as 140lb is taking the 1st steps to unification. We should be a lot more supportive of Khan and not so quick to critisize IMO

He is a world champion you know? so doesn`t that mean he is supposed to be the best in the world at that weight?? which should mean he is able to beat any of the contenders .. or atleast try.

People like you - who know next to nothing about boxing - are the exact type of `boxing fan` he appeals to

[jamesmcdonnell]

well said

We should be grateful we have an exciting young world champion like Khan, not look to put him down at every oppurtunity. He is only 23yrs and still developing as a fighter. So what if there are fights out there which are maybe too much for him at the moment (maidana/bradley). What is so wrong with taking good fights against men he can only benefit being in the ring with and try to hone his skills to be ready for when he has to face a better man, especially as 140lb is taking the 1st steps to unification. We should be a lot more supportive of Khan and not so quick to critisize IMO

He is a world champion you know? so doesn`t that mean he is supposed to be the best in the world at that weight?? which should mean he is able to beat any of the contenders .. or atleast try.

People like you - who know next to nothing about boxing - are the exact type of `boxing fan` he appeals to

fornicating a, i mean are we meant to praise him for being a wolrd champ \who iusnt ready to face his top \challengers, what bullshit.

[Des1]

If your ready to fight for and win a 'world title' then your ready to and should fight the top contenders, the best of the weight. Forget it thoughs of you who say he's only this age etc and he needs learning fights because if thats the case he should not have stepped up to the 'top' level yet then and continued with 'learning fights' . No disrespect to Khan, he's good but not world class. Prescott exposed him and at below world level and its only a matter of time before Khans exposed again and those round him know it

[el_grande_mauro_mina]

Maybe - just maybe - they want someone who has more marquee value than Maidina for Khan's first fight in America - how are you going to sell a fight with Maidina anyway? 'This is the guy who lost to Koletnik who in turn got a boxing lesson off the new champ' If you didn't have a vested interest in the whole thing - who would pay money to watch that? No yank is paying 20 dollars for that, let me tell you.

And to accuse a fighter of 'ducking' someone - lets wait a while shall we before we bandy this word around - if a fighter who is a no1 contender has been put back on the scheduele, its a bit different said fighter being ducked. You need history and repeated behaviour (Hatton and Witter is a good example, Bowe and Lewis) before you should accuse a fighter from such behaviour - I know it won't stop some of you on here because you are a bunch of twats who have a hard on for Khan.

There is absolutley no reason for Khan to duck Maidina - except he brings little to the table prestige wise.

[Autobarn]

CW. there is one big reason why khan is being kept away from maidana. the champion being kept away from the challenger (a reason many are negative about boxing). the reason is that if maidana lands, he will send khan into dreamland with a concussion. this would be history repeating itself, i.e. khan demolished by prescott just as he becomes a sky box office £15 a pop PPV fighter. this would be even more disastrous, having just signed with golden boy promotions who will get him fights on HBO.

maidana thrashed golden boy/HBO hype job victor ortiz in a high(ish) profile fight. surely that makes a khan fight big enough at this stage, and surely that is a good angle with which to hype the contest.

yes there are business realities, yes khan and his ppl will do what's best in terms of risk and reward. but next to all the other champs, it appears that khan has to have special treatment. ok he's a bigger name if nothing else due to olympic success, and thus more strings can be pulled for him. but perhaps this will harm his reputation stateside, where he claims to be "adored." it might be hard for him to shake off the "protected brit" tag, for instance.

[el_grande_mauro_mina]

CW. there is one big reason why khan is being kept away from maidana. the champion being kept away from the challenger (a reason many are negative about boxing). the reason is that if maidana lands, he will send khan into dreamland with a concussion. this would be history repeating itself, i.e. khan demolished by prescott just as he becomes a sky box office £15 a pop PPV fighter. this would be even more disastrous, having just signed with golden boy promotions who will get him fights on HBO.

maidana thrashed golden boy/HBO hype job victor ortiz in a high(ish) profile fight. surely that makes a khan fight big enough at this stage, and surely that is a good angle with which to hype the contest.

yes there are business realities, yes khan and his ppl will do what's best in terms of risk and reward. but next to all the other champs, it appears that khan has to have special treatment. ok he's a bigger name if nothing else due to olympic success, and thus more strings can be pulled for him. but perhaps this will harm his reputation stateside, where he claims to be "adored." it might be hard for him to shake off the "protected brit" tag, for instance.

You can say that about any opponent - if they land right then Khan loses! Is that what happens in boxing? It has happened once in Khans case - sure it may happen again in the future and it may happen against Maidana - but lets be sensible - all talk of 'ducking' is preamture and there is no evidence of it going on. If Khan relinquishes the WBA strap because he won't face Maidana then you might have a point. Lets just see how all this unravels first.

His olympic success only means something here. His slver medal means diddly squat in America and it was 6 years ago - he was probably took on by GBP because he can fight! Have you thought that might be the case?

'Sir' Henry Cooper admitted to ducking George Chuvalo and still gave him a knighthood - there needs to be repeated behaviours over a longish period of time before you can accuse anyone of ducking another fighter.

[Autobarn]

i am glad that we have fighters like khan and haye, who can give british boxing some profile. i appreciated the way he got his mando salita out of the way. but i don't like all this khan-maidana business and i predicted there would be trouble.

maidana hits bloody hard, despite lacking skills. in terms of power, he is a threat. there is a good chance that khan would outbox him, but the threat would be there throughout, so it would always be interesting.

yeah, we can't say ducking. we have to use euphemisms. this appears to be a fight that team khan and his new promoters want nothing to do with. if what gary shaw says is true - and it seems bloody outlandish - that maidana v cayo have signed a contract stopping the winner from fighting khan for the next 3 bouts, then this is pretty extreme.

ppl used to hate sugar ray leonard, because he was an expert handicapper. he would get the fight at the right weight, or the right time, or the ring would be just right for him, or in the late '80s the number of rounds he wanted - and all for the right money, of course. but leonard was doing this vs benitrez, duran, hearns, hagler. i'm not an old timer, nor do i post in the classic forum. but some of today's boxers are right artful dodgers, and some of them are high profile names.

[WildWaylon]

If Roach says Khan can do it, I am not going to argue. They seem to pick the right opponents. People they know they can beat but on paper look dangerous. Clever stuff, it looks risky but they have done their homework.