According to official scorecards, Khan was knocked in 6th round, when Alvarez struck him a monster punch and he hit the canvas.
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Amir Khan will head into the toughest fight of his career on Saturday night as the Brit faces the much fancied Mexican Saul “Canelo” Alvarez in what will likely be the biggest boxing match of 2016. The weight at which their fight would be contested figures to be a major issue whenever negotiations begin, though. The unfailingly confident British boxer has stepped up in weight class in order to challenge Saul “Canelo” Alvarez for the WBC World middleweight title.
Canelo isn’t an overly aggressive fighter and it takes him a couple of rounds to get warmed up, so stylistically speaking this is a fight where Khan can put rounds in the bank early.
If he does beat Alvarez to win the middleweight title, he said he would honor the division limit of 160 pounds, unlike Alvarez. The two clash in the inauguration of the spanking, new T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas which can accommodate around 22,000 fight fans. Khan was more than holding his own in a tactical fight when the right hand suddenly ended it. I knew Khan did a tremendous job.
“I showed my balls by getting into the ring with a big guy”.
Several punches seemed to frustrate Alvarez who took to the centre of the ring, but he seemed intent on landing single shots and making the sort of statement he is known for.
The decisive sixth saw Khan miss with his first attack and was picked off with a left-right to the ribs that might well have been range-finders, but still landed flush.
Khan had been winning the fight up until that point as he managed to stay out of trouble with some cracking counter punching.
“I didn’t make it to the end, but I tried my best”, said Amir “King” Khan. “In reality, that has always happened with all the fighters, but I believe the one that has to be ready is him, not me”.
Not quite seven months later, Lemieux will get back in there against unheralded but eager Glen “Jersey Boy” Tapia directly underneath Alvarez-Khan.
“I had the fight pretty even in the fifth round”.
As I said earlier, the victor of any fight can only be determined in the ring. “We don’t come to play in this sport”.
Remarkably, only one of the three judges had Khan leading at the time of the stoppage, via a score of 48-47.
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A significant number of British fans have travelled over to the fight to voice their support for Khan in what will be a mostly Mexican and pro-Canelo crowd who are celebrating the Cinco de Mayo holiday weekend.
