Amir Khan rips through Dmitriy Salita in 76 seconds

by Scott Christ on Dec 5, 2009 6:12 PM EST in Boxing Results and Post-Fight Analysis

It was no contest in Newcastle.

About 10 seconds into the evening's main event, WBA junior welterweight titlist Amir Khan sparked Dmitriy Salita with a right hand that sent the New Yorker to the mat.

It was over then. On jelly legs and with glassed-over eyes, Salita attempted to fight on. Desperately, he clutched and grabbed at Khan, hoping to get his legs back beneath him.

Another Khan flurry sent him back to the mat. Salita got up once more, but again the young Brit threw his lighting-quick hands in abundance, sending Salita down again, forcing the referee to stop the fight after just 76 seconds of work.

Not bad, Amir. Not bad. Buuuut...

What Khan (22-1, 16 KO) did today was ravage a fighter that anyone who had seen them both fight knew was overmatched. It's OK. Salita was the mandatory challenger -- Khan didn't make that the case, the WBA did. Salita had not earned that position, really, and while I'm not saying that BoxRec.com has flawless rankings, they're generally within the ballpark on current fighters.

Salita was ranked 63rd in the world at 140 pounds with that shiny record of his, now 31-1-1 (16 KO). Sixty-third. Well behind such luminaries as Giuseppe Lauri, Mike Dallas Jr., and Frankie Figueroa. Would anyone have been impressed that Khan beat Frankie Figueroa, for instance?

I'm not saying don't congratulate Khan for a ruthlessly efficient performance, for showing his power is real, for showing his speed is real. Khan's a good fighter. But we're dealing with a guy they're hyping as a phenom. This "phenomenal year" of Khan's has consisted of a garbage win over an old, shot, overweight Marco Antonio Barrera, a very solid win over the very solid Andriy Kotelnik, and now a wipeout of a guy that shouldn't have been in there in the first place.

I'm just saying. And I like Khan a lot, but there's still very much for him to prove. That said, he did more than I expected today. I figured he'd badly rout Salita, but he tore him to shreds with the first solid punch he landed. It was game over, man.

On the undercard, Kevin Mitchell (30-0, 22 KO) outclassed the guy whose entire reputation is wrapped up in his defeat of Khan, Colombian Breidis Prescott. Prescott (21-2, 18 KO) really was never in the fight. Having watched Miguel Vazquez disable his bombs in Prescott's last fight, this is more or less what I expected. A good win for Mitchell, but I was already positive he was much better than Prescott. Mitchell won on scores of 119-110, 118-111 and 117-111. Bad Left Hook scored it 117-111.

John Simpson continued his hot streak by stopping Stevie Bell in the seventh round on a cut. Bell was out of the fight (I had Simpson up 6-0 in rounds) and had fought bravely trying to change the momentum, but nothing was working. His corner decided not to risk his safety any more than they had to.

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Khan did everything that was asked of him

Short of standing there and letting Salita tee off on his mandible, just to prove a point.

by FCF on Dec 5, 2009 6:51 PM EST reply actions

I wonder how much Roach sees in Khan...

Roach has had a lot of good to say about Khan. Pacquiao is at the tail end of his career and it seems like boxing isn’t even his top priority anymore so you have to wonder how Roach sees Khan materialsing on the world stage with Pacquiao about to break the allegiance with Roach.

I think he’s a talented fighter with all the right tools. Roach is a master of finding weaknesses in opponents and could probably get Khan into the ring with very good fighters that are tailor made for his style.

After all boxing simply isn’t about how good or bad your opponent is it’s all about styles. Khan has assets that would give a lot of very, very good fighters a lot of trouble and he is only 22 so he has a lot of maturing and progressing to do as well which is most likely only going to benefit him as a fighter.

I think Khan has a bright future as long as he sticks with Roach. Khan is a great fighter but flawed in many regards. Roach has already turned Pacquiao from a left handed slugger to a 7 division champion. I think he can do tremendous things with Khan as well.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see Khan on top of that pound for pound list in several years if he sticks with Master Roach.

by MannyPacquiao on Dec 5, 2009 9:05 PM EST reply actions

After all boxing simply isn’t about how good or bad your opponent is it’s all about styles.

It’s somewhat about how good or bad your opponent is. Salita, for instance, isn’t very good.

To be quite honest, the only flaw Khan really has IMO is his chin, and he can’t fix that so much as hide it, but that’s not an impossible thing to do if you’ve got a talented guy whose pride doesn’t make him do anything dumb, and Khan seems the sort that will do what he has to do, and do what Roach (or anyone else he trains with) advises. Wlad Klitschko has been hiding his iffy chin for years now as the top heavyweight in the world. If Khan can do the same thing, he’ll be a top-level boxer for a long, long time. I think he’s a wonderful pure talent, and now he’s got the best coach in the world.

Bad Left Hook
"If bulls**t was poetry, Ray 'Boom Boom' Mancini's name would be Shakespeare." -- Dennis Rappaport

by Scott Christ on Dec 5, 2009 9:11 PM EST up reply actions