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Amir Khan’s own trainer advised against a bout with Saul “Canelo” Alvarez when first presented with the possibility.
Shah Khan, Amir’s father and manager, came to renowned trainer Virgil Hunter at the beginning of the year with the prospective matchup. Hunter told him it wasn’t a smart idea.
“Just being logical,” Hunter explained his rationale. “Size difference being first and foremost, and the fact that Amir had been off for a while. Those are the first two things that came to my mind.”
Hunter has come around leading up to the middleweight championship bout between Alvarez (46-1-1) and Khan (31-3), which airs at 6 p.m. on pay-per-view Saturday night from T-Mobile Arena. But he might be the only one.
The fight feels like a transformative moment for the 25-year-old Alvarez as public confidence in him flies at an all-time high. Never before has the boxing world so overwhelmingly expected Alvarez to cruise past another multiple-division champion in his prime.
Golden Boy Promotions sent out a release with 24 experts picking a winner earlier in the week, and 21 of them went with Alvarez. The other three were all from the 29-year-old Khan’s native United Kingdom.
At William Hill sports books, Alvarez has drawn 94 percent of the betting action in the bout despite being a prohibitive minus-550 (risking $5.50 to win $1) favorite.
“I feel that I’m obligated to win the fight,” Alvarez said through a translator.
A lot of the pressure building on Alvarez comes expressly because of his size. Khan is moving up two weight classes after spending the last two years of his career fighting at 147 pounds.
Alvarez has fought at up to 160 pounds — this bout is a catchweight at 155 — and reportedly rehydrates to as high as 175 in between the weigh-in and fight night. Khan has bulked up to have boxing fans gawking, and thinks he can reach 165 pounds before stepping into the ring.
But even under that best-case scenario, he’ll be giving up significant weight to Alvarez.
“I’m not going to be thinking I’m stronger than Canelo, but I’m going to stand with him and fight with him,” Khan said. “I think my skills will win me the fight.”
Smaller, shiftier fighters have stymied Alvarez in the past. Alvarez weighed nearly 20 pounds more than Floyd Mayweather Jr. in September 2013 ahead of his only career loss.
He bounced back to beat Erislandy Lara 10 months later, but only by split decision. Alvarez struggled to track down Lara, who was hesitant to engage and more concerned with countering to make for an action-starved fight.
Alvarez thinks Khan will employ a similar approach.
“We have made sure that I am prepared for that style of boxing,” he said.
Like most fighters, Khan has stayed tight-lipped with his game plan. He has shared that he won’t explicitly copy Mayweather, but might take elements from his approach.
Khan has a clear vision of the fight, which is what swayed Hunter to feel comfortable with him fighting Alvarez. In their first conversation on the bout, Khan not only shared how he thought he could beat Alvarez with Hunter but also explained why he wanted the chance so badly.
“It was quite convincing,” Hunter said. “But it let me know that he knew what he was up against, and he understood what he could and could not do.”
Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.
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