Khan Siap Hadapi Ricky Hatton

Amir Khan mengaku siap untuk menghadapi Ricky Hatton. Pertarungan itu akan terjadi jika Hatton benar-benar memutuskan untuk kembali bertarung di atas ring.

Khan belum bisa melupakan kekalahan sebelumnya, yang mana saat itu King Khan (julukan Khan) harus kalah Knock Out dari Danny Garcia pada ronde keempat. Awalnya, Khan mengaku tidak mau berhadapan dengan Hatton.

“Saya tidak merasa Hatton mau berhadapan dengan kami. Saya mencoba untuk menghindari pertarungan melawan Hatton, tapi anda tidak pernah tahu. Ini akan menjadi pertarungan terbesar di Inggris dan saya rasa tidak akan ada pertarungan seperti itu di Inggris.” Jelas Khan.

Kendati demikian, King Khan untuk sekarang ini sedang fokus untuk menghadapi pertarungan ulang melawan Garcia, yang diharapkan dapat berlangsung pada Desember nanti. Meski begitu, kubu Garcia menolak untuk pilihan itu.

“Pertarungan melawan Khan memang akan menjadi laga terbesar di Inggris. Bahkan, lebih besar dari laga Dereck Chisora melawan David Haye, tapi anda tidak pernah tahu,” sambung petinju asal Inggris itu.

“Untuk sementara ini, saya lebih fokus ke pertarungan melawan Garcia. Sebab, apa yang membuat saya kesal adalah anda tahu telah membuat kesalahan dan anda tahu kesalahan yang anda buat itu apa,” tandasnya.

Carl Froch says he would have retired if knocked out like Khan

IBF super-middleweight world champion Carl Froch says he would retire if he had been knocked out like Amir Khan in his loss to Danny Garcia.

Khan, 25, was stopped in the fourth round by the unbeaten American in Las Vegas on Saturday night and has now lost his last two fights.

Britain's Froch told BBC Radio 5 live: "Khan's been knocked out by someone who is not touted for the top level.

"It's very damaging. I would retire if that happened to me."

Khan was knocked down three times as Garcia claimed the British fighter's WBA light-welterweight belt and held on to his WBC title.

After a strong start, Khan was floored in the third by a counter and could not recover from shots in round four.

Froch - who became a three-time world champion with an impressive fifth-round stoppage of Lucian Bute in May - has lost twice in his career.

But he questioned whether Khan is capable of coming back from his latest defeat.
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Froch said: "People can say that I have lost twice before, but if I had lost to Bute I would have retired.

"I'm not in this sport to get beat, get knocked out and get outclassed, I'm in this game to be at the top and stay at the very top.

"It's a personal decision to retire but to get stopped in the fourth round after previously being knocked out is very damaging. It's finishing. He has found a level.

"You have to consider that he was badly knocked out by Breidis Prescott and he lost to Lamont Peterson as well.

"I hope he can come back, he's got enough years left and if he has the ambition and desire to come back he could. He's a good fighter.

"But this is boxing. It's a very, very tough sport."

Khan's trainer Freddie Roach said his fighter can return from the latest setback, and opened up the possibilty of a rematch with the unbeaten American.

"He's still young and people make mistakes, but this is what makes us better when we avenge things like this," Roach told BBC Sport.

"Amir told me he wants a rematch, he said he would love to have it in England, so let's see if Danny Garcia has the heart to come over there."

Amir Khan rules out retirement despite Danny Garcia defeat

Amir Khan has dismissed suggestions that he should retire after losing his WBA light-welterweight title with a fourth-round defeat by Danny Garcia.

IBF super-middleweight world champion Carl Froch said he would quit boxing if he had been knocked out in similar style to Khan.

But the Bolton fighter, 25, told BBC Sport: "I'm not talking about retiring, I'm still young, I've got a lot in me.

"I'm still hungry and I'll come back a lot better and a lot stronger."

It was the third setback of Khan's career following a first-round knockout against Breidis Prescott in 2008 and the loss to Lamont Peterson in December.

Froch said at the weekend: "Khan's been knocked out by someone who is not touted for the top level. It's very damaging. I would retire if that happened to me."

But Khan responded: "Carl's always got his little things to say and I'll leave it to that really. If he wants to retire he can retire.

"I'm in a tougher division, I'm fighting better opposition and I'm a bigger name than him. That's what burns him really.

"People are going to say things after this fight, but people said things after the Prescott fight and you see how I came back from there."

Prior to the fight, Khan had talked about stepping up to welterweight for a meeting with unbeaten American Floyd Mayweather.
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But he now admits it is more likely he will remain at light-welterweight for at least one more bout.

"It's put things back," he explained. "I made 140lb very comfortably this time and I think it will be ideal for me to stay maybe one more fight - if I can win the title and then move up to 147lb. No rush.

"People believe 'Amir should be moving up, doing this, doing that'. People forget how old I am. I'm still young and there's a lot I need to work on before I do move up to the next division.

"We're going to try for the rematch. I don't know if they're going to take it, but if we can get that in England it will be amazing."

Khan insisted he had "no regrets" apart from the huge left hook that dropped him to the canvas in round three.

Trainer Freddie Roach feels his fighter can return from this latest setback, but Khan hinted that he would examine their partnership.

Khan has spent a number of months away from home, training in Los Angeles and the Philippines before facing Garcia in Las Vegas.

"I'm going to sit down when I go home and see where we go from there," he added. "I want to be the main priority.

"A lot of travelling - going to the Philippines, here, there, everywhere - does take a lot out of you, especially when you're a young fighter and I've never done it before.

"I'm going to start thinking about myself because normally I'm thinking about others too much and I'm the one who's in the ring taking the punishment. It's time now where maybe I do things a bit differently.

"When you're nice and just agree with everything, sometimes even though you're not happy doing things, you just do them. But I'm going to have to sit down with the team now and do things I want to do.

"There are a lot of untied knots there and we're going to fix them."

Hindari Kecurangan, Khan Diminta Menang KO

Pelatih Freddie Roach meminta anak asuhnya Amir Khan untuk menang KO saat bertarung lawan Danny Garcia, Sabtu (14/7). Pasalnya, Roach tak ingin kontroversi kekalahan Manny Pacquaio atas Timothy Bradley kembali terulang. Seperti diketahui, petinju dengan julukan Pacman tersebut secara mengejutkan kalah dalam jumlah poin. Padahal, sepanjang laga petinju asal Filipina tersebut lebih tampil mendominasi. “Saya benar-benar khawatir akan keputusan wasit saat Pacquaio kalah. Oleh karena itu, saya meminta kepada Khan untuk bisa menang KO atas Garcia. Hal tersebut membuat yakin publik,” ujar Roach pada Boxingscene, Jumat (13/7/2012). Terlebih, Khan pernah mengalami kasus yang tak mengenakan yaitu harus kehilangan dua gelarnya, WBA dan IBF setelah dikalahkan oleh Lamont Peterson dalam pertarungan di Washington, Desember lalu. Walau pada akhirnya gelar tersebut kembali padanya. “Saya merasa para petinju akan selalu menjadi sasaran kecuranga. Beberapa pihak rupanya tak senang dengan kesuksesan petinju-petinju saya selama beberapa tahun ini. “Saya rasa, para petinju saya selalu menjadi target kecurangan. Orang lain rupanya cemburu dengan kesuksesan petinju-petinju saya selama bertahun-tahun. Freddie Roach dan Wild Card Gym telah meraih banyak sukses sehingga orang-orang iri,” ungkapnya. Khan sendiri memiliki motivasi yang lebih usai kembalinya dua gelar yang ia raih sebelumnya. Dengan bisa mengalahkan Garcia maka menambah sabuk WBC bagi petinju kelahiran Inggris ini. “Ini pertarungan yang sangat baik bagi kami. Garcia belum terkalahkan dalam 23 pertarungan dan 14 kali menang secara KO, tentunya hal tersebut menjadi ujian bagi saya. Gelar WBC akan diperebutkan dan saya berharap bisa menang,” pungkasnya.

Bute to fight tune-up bout in November against a high level opponent

It was announced today that former IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute will be taking a tune-up fight in November to sharpen up for a rematch against Carl Froch in March next year in Montreal.

Bute wants to avenge his loss to Froch from last May, but he’s not going to take a soft touch for the November fight. Bute wants quality so he can work on the mistakes he made against Froch.

Bute’s trainer Stephan Larouche says they already have someone in mind for Bute in November that will give him a tough fight.

Bute knows what he did wrong in the Froch fight, saying “I did not use my primary weapons of speed and my jab at all during the fight. I fought Carl Froch’s fight.”

So true, so true. Bute fought a primitive caveman style of fighting where he just stood in front of Froch and gave the Brit the only chance he had to win the fight by being stationary for him. I was frankly surprised that Bute was doing that in the 1st round, because anyone with any sense could see that it was catering to Froch’s style of fighting. I figured that Bute would make some adjustments in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th rounds, but he never did. He kept going out each round and standing right there for Froch to land his shots. Bute made it even easier by fighting off the ropes, and Froch took full advantage of it.

The rematch will be much different believe me. This will be like Sugar Ray Leonard vs. Roberto Duran II, where Leonard came out and boxed Duran and made him quit. Bute is going to box circles around Froch and make him frustrated. I just hope Froch keeps it clean and doesn’t resort to fouling Bute out of frustration if he can’t land anything. Thankfully, the fight will be held in Montreal, Canada, so that gives Bute a much better chance of winning the bout if it goes to the scorecards. I’d hate to see another controversial decision like the one where Froch beat Andre Dirrell in 2009 in Nottingham. That was sad.

Pirog injured, pulls out of scheduled Golovkin fight

By Jason Kim: WBO middleweight champion Dmitry Pirog (20-0, 15 KO’s) has suffered an injury during training for his August 25th fight against WBA World middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (23-0, 20 KO’s) and won’t be able to make the fight according to Dan Rafael.

This is bad news for boxing fans and really bad for Golovkin, because he was looking forward to this fight with a lot of anticipation to net his first big scalp in the middleweight division.

It’s unclear now when the 32-year-old Pirog will be healed from injury. Hopefully the fight can be salvaged for a later date. If not, then Golovkin will have to wait to get the winner of the unification bout between WBA Super World middleweight champion Felix Sturm and IBF champ Daniel Geale. Golovkin has been waiting his chance at fighting Sturm for ages now, and he’s ready to take him apart to kick him off his throne.