Faster Than A Speeding Bullet……….
By: Andrew Harrison
Category: amir kahn, dmitriy salita, juan manuel marquez, kevin mitchell, ricky hatton
Seconds.
They’re beginning to define the first chapter of Amir Khans’s professional life. It took just 54 of them to derail the Olympic wonderkid’s fledgling career in September of last year.
It was master trainer Freddie Roach’s appointment as chief of them which began the young man from Bolton’s rehabilitation.
Tonight in front of a partisan North East crowd, Khan needed a mere 76 of the little beauties to re-emerge as a potential boxing superstar.
It took him just over a minute to sweep away poor Dmitriy Salita, who was levelled almost instantly, dumped hard onto the seat of his pants by a one-two thrown at warp speed. Speed has been a common separator of wheat and chaff in major boxing matches of late, with Manny Pacquiao, David Haye and Andre Ward all displaying oodles of the stuff. There’s fast however and then there’s, well…..Khan.
The lad has an uncommon quickness about him and under Roach, the punches are now flashing out like streams of rat-a-tat machine gun fire. As the groggy Salita tried to compose himself after rising, Khan coolly loaded up his bullets and simply whirred away, completely overwhelming his man and forcing referee Luis Pabon to call a halt to proceedings before some punters had even managed to familiarise themselves with their seats. Speeding bullets packed in pigskin.
The win opens up a host of possibilities for Khan, with major names now in the frame such as Kevin Mitchell (a pretty big fight domestically), Marcos Maidana (a highly dangerous assignment), Erik Morales (a travesty if he gets the call), Ricky Hatton (a MASSIVE event) and Juan Manuel Marquez (a tad too soon). Whoever does land the gig, will in all likelihood need to be prepared to throw hands with him Stateside. Khan’s pre-fight claims that bigotry and racial hatred had stalled his rise and had prevented him from reaching the heights he now threatens to soar to, are key factors in a mooted US relocation.
Now a free agent, it remains to be seen whether his current fight by fight arrangement with Britain’s pre-eminent promoter Frank Warren, will continue to flourish or if it will go the way of most other long distance relationships and fall by the wayside. It would make sense from Warren’s point of view then, to swiftly maneuver another of his fighters into position for first crack at the Bolton flash, however it won’t be easy. A fight against Mitchell may do decent business here in the UK, yet if Khan is adamant that his next fight should take place in the US, fans there would quite rightly demand someone recognisable in the opposite corner.
We must of course temper any praise given to Amir with the fact that Salita looked, well, quite awful really. His unbeaten record told us very little coming in and the way in which he was simply wiped out in this, his first major test, is quite damning. Quite where the spurious alphabet organisations manage to dredge up their ‘number one contenders’ from becomes a more baffling phenomena with each passing year.
Undercard action saw Kevin Mitchell deliver a ‘coming of age’ type performance, after thoroughly outboxing the heavy handed but raw Breidis Prescott. It was a mature and commanding display from Mitchell, who thrusts himself into the Khan sweepstakes with this fine victory. He also now forms the third prong of an exciting British triumverate between 135 and 140 lbs alongside Khan and the marauding Mancunian, John Murray, which could make for a series of exciting domestic clashes.
After tonight’s performance though, Khan may well feel that he has now outgrown his domestic peers, save for perhaps one. The former king of this division, who was last seen stretched out in a Vegas ring after encountering another Roach fighter, in possession of lightning quick hands and destructive power.
It…….would…….be……huge.
