Facebook.com/AmirKhanTheOfficialPage[/caption]British boxer Amir Khan will be trying to get his career back on track in December when he takes on 26-year-old Carlos Molina of America. The 25-year-old Khan of Bolton, England surprised many of his fans recently when he fired former trainer Freddie Roach.
Khan said he decided to part ways with the famous trainer since he had other boxers to look after such as Manny Pacquiao and Julio Cesar Chavez and he wasn’t spending enough one-on-one time with Khan.
In addition, Khan has also lost his last two fights after Danny Garcia knocked him out in July and Lamont Peterson beat him by a controversial split decision last December. Khan lost both his WBA and IBF junior welterweight championships to Peterson, but the WBA reinstated him as champion several months later when it was revealed that Peterson had failed his drug test for the bout.
Khan then took on WBC champion Garcia and lost his title to him. He’s now hired American trainer Virgil Hunter to help him regain his titles and their first fight together will be against Molina.
Khan said that he’s happy to be working with Hunter as he’s considered to be one of the best boxing trainers in the world. He added that everybody in the boxing world knows just how good Hunter is and he’s proved it over the last several years. He believes he can regain his position as one of the sport’s elite fighters with Hunter in his corner and is anxious to learn some new techniques from him.
The fight against Molina won’t be a simple task though, since he’s undefeated with 17 victories and a draw in his 18 career pro bouts and has seven knockouts. Khan said he realizes that Molina is a dangerous fighter and he’ll have to be well prepared to beat him. He added that Molina is fast, quite tricky, and hungry and will be trying to make a name for himself in their upcoming bout which will be held in the U.S. sometime in December.
American boxing writers elected Hunter as last year’s trainer of the year for the work he did with American super middleweight world champion Andre Ward. Hunter said he believes he and Khan can form a fruitful partnership together.
He said that Khan has all of the talent in the world and he’s happy to be able to try and bring it out in him. He said his heart and speed are exceptional, but there are still some small things that he can improve on to become a better overall boxer.
Hunter feels Khan is a superior offensive fighter, but needs to work on his defense. He also said he wants to keep him away from big punchers at the moment because his chin’s been suspect in some of his bouts. If he manages to beat Molina, it could pave the way for an all-British showdown between Khan and Ricky Hatton, who has just announced his return to the ring after a few years of retirement.
