THE most guilty of men have litigators representing them in making a case of why they are not. Amir Khan’s crime is that he apparently is not good enough to beat Terence Crawford tomorrow night at Madison Square Garden. All the evidence is stacked against him. Crawford after all is in many peoples view the best fighter in the world pound-for-pound. A recent poll of 23 writers all had Crawford winning. And even promoter Bob Arum did not exactly endorse Khan’s chances when he said that the day after the match he will get on the phone and call Al Haymon to try and make a Crawford- Errol Spence fight.
Want more: Khan is back with trainer Virgil Hunter who is a father figure to Andre Ward. Yet as much as Ward would like to see Hunter have success with Khan, he too has politely dismissed Khan’s chances by minimizing the role his mentor will play in the fight.
Not all litigators believe in their client’s innocence, yet it is their job to give them the best representation possible. Conversely, I don’t believe Khan will defeat Crawford, feeling he will get stopped in nine rounds or so, but if a case were to be made for him it would go along the lines of what if.
We are assuming that Khan at 32, is past his best. But what if the Amir Khan who shows up at MSG tomorrow night is the same fighter who completely outclassed the likes of former champions Luis Collazo, Paul Malignaggi, and Zab Judah?
What if the Amir Khan who shows up at MSG tomorrow night is the same fighter who outboxed Manny Pacquiao enough times in the gym that the Filipino would never accept his challenge later on to do it for real?
In other words we are assuming that Khan can’t turn back the clock, but no one has stepped forward and considered what will happen if he can. If a prime Khan enters the ring against Crawford then ask yourself who you would pick?
Khan will be in terrific shape and give his best effort. Maybe the best of him would never have been good enough to defeat Crawford, but then again maybe it would have. Only a victory by Amir will answer that.
This fight conjures up memories of the one between Sugar Ray Leonard and Marvin Hagler. Few gave Leonard a chance to defeat Hagler considering his inactivity and how poorly he had performed in his last fight against Kevin Howard. We assumed that Leonard could not turn back the clock, but he did in scoring one of the more memorable upsets in boxing history. So too could it be with Khan, but will it?
