Amir Khan training with Virgil Hunter for Terence Crawford fight

By Mike Smith

Boxingnews24.com

Amir ‘King’ Khan (33-4, 20 KOs) has started his training with Virgil Hunter in Hayward, California to get ready for his fight against WBO welterweight champion Terence ‘Bud’ Crawford (34-0, 25 KOs) on April 20 on ESPN pay-per-view.

Khan, 32, has his work cut out for him to prepare to face one of the best welterweights in the division in pound-for-pound star Crawford. Khan is a underdog, and he’s not likely to change that status by the time he steps foot inside the ring with Terence at a still to be determined venue in the U.S. Khan’s hand speed looks like it’s disappeared. He’s going to need to be a lot faster than what he’s showing in the video for him to have a chance of beating Crawford.

In video of Khan working out with his trainer Hunter, he complains about how he love and hates training camp. This is obviously the early part of the camp where Khan is still out of shape from having been out of the ring for the last four months, so it’s expected for him to be struggling with his conditioning. Khan clearly looks slower than previous, and it makes you wonder if his once blazing hand speed is disappearing as he gets older. Khan isn’t old, but he’s slowing down just the same. For a fighter whose main asset is his hand and foot speed, losing that part of his game will make vulnerable against Crawford. Khan was surprisingly knocked down in his last fight against fringe contender Samuel Vargas last September. That shouldn’t have happened, because Vargas is not a big puncher and he’s not one of the better fighters in the 147 lb division. The way that Khan struggled against Vargas showed that he’s not going to be able to move further in the weight division.

“People say it’s great to be back in training camp. Yeah, it’s good to be in training camp, but it’s very, very hard,” Khan said to Fighthype about beginning his training for his fight against Crawford on April 20. “We do a lot of strength and conditioning. It’s tough work, man. It’s good to be here, but I hate to be here. Boxing is one of those sports that you love and hate at the same time. I’ve got a love-hate relationship with boxing. I’m sure in the end, it’s going to be all worth it,” Khan said.

Crawford isn’t a big puncher at 147. He’s more of a guy that takes advantage of his opponents’s mistakes to slowly break them down. Crawford was hit a lot in his last fight against Jose Benavidez last October. Benavidez isn’t the fastest guy. So if Benavidez was able to put hands on Crawford, then Khan should be able to as well, as long as he can handle his punching power. That’s a big if. Samuel Vargas wasn’t a big puncher, and he was able to put Khan down on the canvas in the second round last September.