Email WhatsApp 276 Shares

Even though I look bigger + thicker the SPEED is still there but with POWER. Iv been working on strength, stability and on my core. — Amir Khan (@AmirKingKhan) March 11, 2014

By Scott Gilfoid: Amir Khan (28-3, 19 KO’s) has bulked up a little in the last 11 months in putting on muscle while sitting idle and wasting a year of his prime for nothing. Khan feels that the extra muscle that he’s put on has increased his punching power, and he thinks it’ll equate to him having success at welterweight. As of now, Khan still doesn’t have an opponent picked out for his April or May comeback fight, but he’s going to need to take on someone with a pulse for a change if he wants to make a case for a fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr.

In looking at pictures of Khan on his social media site, he doesn’t look that much bigger than he’s been in the past, and I think it’s highly doubtful that he’s punching with anymore power. Honestly, adding muscle rarely adds to a fighter’s punching power in any real way. If anything, adding muscle takes away from a fighter’s power by making them less flexible, slowing them down, and tiring them out quicker to the point where they can’t throw as many punches before.

Given that the main thing that Khan had going for him in the past was his hand speed, I think he’s wasting his time entirely in building up muscles that will make him slower. Besides the loss of speed that Khan will likely experience, he’ll also have problems moving around the ring to avoid getting nailed by the bigger and stronger welterweights in the division. Khan needs to be able to move as much as possible in order for him to keep from getting knocked out.

Khan is clearly going in the wrong direction in adding useless muscle that will only slow him down and make it more difficult for him to move for 12 rounds. How in the heck is he going to be able to run around the ring to keep from getting knocked out by sluggers like Keith Thurman if he’s carrying a bunch of useless muscle that doesn’t translate into more power? Khan was better off at his old weight instead of trying to bulk up with the view that it would somehow make him more powerful. It’s not going to make him faster. It’s going to make him slower and less able to move for anything length of time without tiring.

As for who Khan’s next opponent will be, Robert Guerrero’s name has been mentioned as a potential opponent. However, I don’t see that fight happening. I see Luis Collazo as the guy that winds up facing Khan. If and when Khan beats him, he’ll then start calling out Mayweather in hopes of getting a fight against him. I don’t see a win over Collazo as being a big enough to erase the stain of Khan’s losses to Danny Garcia and Lamont Peterson. To me, Collazo is like a lateral move from Khan’s win over the past his past Julio Diaz. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if Diaz were to beat Collazo if that fight were made. That’s definitely not a step up from Diaz.