Realistically, what can Amir Khan achieve?

My question is simple, given his skills and abilities but also his weaknesses, what do people genuinely believe Amir can achieve in the sport? In a few years time when the dust has settled and he's retired and gone for good, what do people believe he will have achieved and how will his career be looked upon? Will he ever unify a decision? Will he be a p4p star or will he always remain on the cusp, hampered by his deficiencies?

He'll be a British Boxing great Kareem..........

As for what he can achieve.............Who knows?? The kid is accident prone.....

Certainly a Brook win and then a defence or three will establish him in the Hatton bracket...

He's very underrated for me Kareem............Whether there are other motives bar Boxing for the reason why.. is anyone's guess........

Depends if he's actually gonna fight anyone or if he's going to continue to carry on waiting for the big fights to just be given him him

The facts are that he's a very talented boxer with great athletic attributes but has an air of vulnerability in all of his fights

How far he will go who knows, he could go on a great run of beating brook, guerrero, broner, maidana etc on the bounce or he could go on a awful run of losses to brook, guerrero, broner, maidana etc that's what makes him hard to predict

I think losses at this point of his career to any of the welters not named manny or floyd will be detrimental to his "legacy" as he should be in the prime of his career atm and has already had a couple poor setbacks

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:He'll be a British Boxing great Kareem..........

As for what he can achieve.............Who knows?? The kid is accident prone.....

Certainly a Brook win and then a defence or three will establish him in the Hatton bracket...

He's very underrated for me Kareem............Whether there are other motives bar Boxing for the reason why.. is anyone's guess........

Bo to the Lox

British great??? Ahead of who? Lewis? Bruno? Naz? Froch? Calzaghe? How has he achieved what they did?

Khan is a decent fighter but he has it all to do to be label great.

If he can forget Floyd for 1 year. Take a couple of fights against fighters like Thurman and Brook then yeah he is ready. If he can beat the likes of them in a year then he will be a top dog elite fighter.

Who's saying he'd be ahead of Lewis, Naz, Froch or Calzaghe?

He's comfortably ahead of Bruno, he has actually beaten a few boxers with a pulse not just a walking chin in McCall, he's comfortably among the top 30 we've produced on these shores i'd have thought.

He's good enough to beat anyone in and around his weight, but weak chinned enough to get knocked down at any time. So it's very hard to gauge what he can achieve. Long title reins are almost an impossibility, but winning titles is highly probable.

Hammersmith harrier wrote:Who's saying he'd be ahead of Lewis, Naz, Froch or Calzaghe?

He's comfortably ahead of Bruno, he has actually beaten a few boxers with a pulse not just a walking chin in McCall, he's comfortably among the top 30 we've produced on these shores i'd have thought.

Bruno lost to the likes of Tyson (twice) ex undisputed champ, Lewis ex undisputed champ, Witherspoon ex champion, and Smith quality heavyweight contender.

Khan has lost to journeyman Prescott, average Peterson, and Garcia.

Please have more respect for a genuine British great in Bruno.

We should just ignore that only one of them beat opponents of any note, losing to a better level of opposition doesn't mean you are better ONETWO but I presume you already know that.

He has also beaten Alexander, Maidana (one of the hardest punchers in boxing history, your words) and Collozo. I would argue those stand favourable comparison with any wins big Frank can boast.

Don't much care for fighters records being based on who they lost to. Go too far down this route and Peter Buckley starts to look like and all time British great!

Yeah Rowley, I mean Golovkin certainly isn't in Sanderline Williams' class either. Look at the names on Williams' record; Reggie Johnson, Herol Graham, Frank Tate, Barkley, Benn, Toney, Sosa, McClellan......Sanderline fought (and lost to) 'em all!

Back to Khan. I agree with what WHU touched on - he could still become regarded as a really top, top fighter, but only if he has no more of those bad, out-of-the-blue defeats in the next three or four years. I'm not talking a narrow points loss to Floyd, eventually getting stopped late on in a topsy-turvy, Fight of the Year contender against Thurman etc, as there'd be no cause for embarrassment in those. But he can't afford to lose any more fights from strong positions, or come undone against guys who he's widely expected to beat in style. He's as peak as it gets right now and should be smarter for those previous setbacks.

My feeling is that he'll go down as one of those fighters who has a career most would be chuffed to bits with but who neve quite fulfilled their maximum promise. Somewhere in between Judah and Cotto by the time he's done; threatening divisional dominance but never quite making it materialise, a few belts but only fleetingly (if ever) considered the best at his weight, roughly the same amount of losses as wins against the other elite guys he fights.

He'll be classed as a British great regardless of what some people may say. Silver medalist in the olympics, World Champion. His losses seem to say that he'll take on the dangerous opponents than shirk them all and one of them loss's was near the start of his career andanother by someone who tested positive for Steroids (i think)

He's still got time to cement himself as totally world class but as Chris and Rowley have said could do without another loss (unless it's a close one to Mayweather/Pac if they're still seen as numbers 1 and 2 and haven't dropped a few steps)

I think the next two years will define him, as Chris has touched upon he's pretty much at the peak of his powers now and I was very impressed with the Alexander performance. I'd love to see him take on Bradley and Brook and think were he to beat those two (which I believe he can) then he should be regarded as a great.

To answer the question Khan is almost certain to pick up more belts, would make him favourite against Brook should that one happen. Not sure if he could get away with light middle but who knows. As Chris has said he really needs to avoid disasters against anything other than top tier guys now, am not too bothered if he loses a couple more. He tries to fight the best and if the odd loss is the downside of this it is a price I am happy to pay.

Don’t know with Khan but for me when I consider who is the best Brit of say the last 30 years the first criterion I set myself is to ask if they were ever the best in their division, not in the sense of arguably being so, but in the sense of proving it, however briefly beyond any reasonable argument. Naz did it, Lewis and Calzaghe certainly did, and whilst it is with the caveat it was cruiser I guess we would have to acknowledge Haye did. Thing is with Khan I am not sure I see Khan doing this, part of this is him operating in and around traditionally strong division, but equally I just don’t see him putting together the kind of slip up free run that would make this feasible. He will certainly finish as a top twenty Brit (arguably already is) and the lower reaches of the top ten is not beyond the realms of possibility, but I think there will be the odd slip up between now and retirement that will stall any run to the higher positions.

88Chris05 wrote:Yeah Rowley, I mean Golovkin certainly isn't in Sanderline Williams' class either. Look at the names on Williams' record; Reggie Johnson, Herol Graham, Frank Tate, Barkley, Benn, Toney, Sosa, McClellan......Sanderline fought (and lost to) 'em all!

Back to Khan. I agree with what WHU touched on - he could still become regarded as a really top, top fighter, but only if he has no more of those bad, out-of-the-blue defeats in the next three or four years. I'm not talking a narrow points loss to Floyd, eventually getting stopped late on in a topsy-turvy, Fight of the Year contender against Thurman etc, as there'd be no cause for embarrassment in those. But he can't afford to lose any more fights from strong positions, or come undone against guys who he's widely expected to beat in style. He's as peak as it gets right now and should be smarter for those previous setbacks.

My feeling is that he'll go down as one of those fighters who has a career most would be chuffed to bits with but who neve quite fulfilled their maximum promise. Somewhere in between Judah and Cotto by the time he's done; threatening divisional dominance but never quite making it materialise, a few belts but only fleetingly (if ever) considered the best at his weight, roughly the same amount of losses as wins against the other elite guys he fights.

Isn't the problem with that the fact that due to the Silver medal at the Olympics, the bar was already set so high by Warren and the media that Khan was always going to struggle to live up to people's expectations?

I think he can achieve a lot of money in a very fan friendly style. I expect he will be missed and held in higher regards after hes finished.

I wouldnt worry too much about greatness or legacy if I was him. He is very beatable on the wrong night and I dont think he should put so much pressure on himself. He always has his fan base and celebrity status to fall back on during hard times. He has it made for himself just like Hatton did.

He could be a guest presenter on Celebrity Juice

He's definitely got a chapter or two to write before the curtain falls and I think it's around now that he can make his most significant mark.

His career peak so far was probably Maidana, and I think he can go beyond that in the next year or so. Like many, I give him a chance with Mayweather, although he may never get that chance it shows what many of us think about his ability. If he stays out of trouble in a fight I think he can beat anyone, Manny would probably cause him the most problems based on the clash of styles.

He's already got a respectable CV but in 18-24 months I'd like to see some big names on there, Brook being one. I'd like to see him avenge Garcia, it's the biggest mark against his career now as we all know he'd beat Prescott, he probably shaded it against Peterson regardless of the following failed test results, but Garcia is beatable but needs to be proven.

A couple of big name wins before the chimes ring in 2017 and I'll be impressed.

For me, the problem with Khan rematching Petersen or Garcia is that those two seem to have regressed somewhatwhereas Khan's just put in arguably his two career best performances and, as such, Garcia and Petersen might appear to be backward steps. When you consider the other names he could be fighting, I'm not convinced that either of those two do anything for Khan other than tick the "unfinished business" box and is that what Khan's after at this stage of his career.

DAVE667 wrote:For me, the problem with Khan rematching Petersen or Garcia is that those two seem to have regressed somewhatwhereas Khan's just put in arguably his two career best performances and, as such, Garcia and Petersen might appear to be backward steps. When you consider the other names he could be fighting, I'm not convinced that either of those two do anything for Khan other than tick the "unfinished business" box and is that what Khan's after at this stage of his career.

Khan has looked good but his opposition hasn't been stellar. I always feel Garcia rises to the occasion.

DuransHorse wrote:

DAVE667 wrote:For me, the problem with Khan rematching Petersen or Garcia is that those two seem to have regressed somewhatwhereas Khan's just put in arguably his two career best performances and, as such, Garcia and Petersen might appear to be backward steps. When you consider the other names he could be fighting, I'm not convinced that either of those two do anything for Khan other than tick the "unfinished business" box and is that what Khan's after at this stage of his career.

Khan has looked good but his opposition hasn't been stellar.  I always feel Garcia rises to the occasion.

I wonder if that slugfest he had has taken it's toll more than people realize. Surely if they fight again, Khan understands there's far too much on the line to get sloppy. If not, maybe he doesn't deserve a tilt at the top dogs

Garcia peterson winner seems a smart path to take

He can acheive a lot if he is well matched. Hes last couple of opponents have been handpicked to make him look good and try and make him marketable for a Mayweather fight. Plenty of good fights out there for him. One of those fighters that will always be in demand even if loses because he provides value for money.