clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Virgil Hunter: If Canelo beats Khan, does he have the heart to dare to be great?

Virgil Hunter discusses Amir Khan's mood and focus, and questions if Canelo Alvarez would have the same heart to take a similar risk.

On whether there's anything more to be said

"I don't think so. You leave that to the people reporting on the fight, that's their job. I don't step in that lane and add to things they're already putting on the fight. My focus is just on the fight and keeping my mind focused on and visualizing things things that I need to visualize. I'm really not in that arena, so to speak. I can't add anything else more to it."

On Amir Khan keeping his focus in the fight

"If anybody puts a high-powered rifle on you, you're gonna be focused. That's about as simple as I can put it. If somebody's pointing a gun at you, you're gonna be focused. You're not gonna look off and doing something you're not supposed to do, you're in a true element of danger. I expect him to focus. I don't even give it any other thought. I expect him to focus."

On Khan's mood this week

"He's been very relaxed, very calm. Probably more than I've ever seen him, because certain fighters just have that ingredient where they challenge themselves. He's daring to take this challenge. He's accomplished enough for the world of boxing to put him in the category with some of the greats. But then there are legends over the greats, right? In order to join that group, you have to do something legendary. That's what he's doing, he's trying to find out, 'Who am I, really, as a fighter?' And the only way to find out is to have present danger -- a situation where if it goes wrong, he can get hurt, injured. That's where he's got himself."

On Khan not caring about weight and risk

"Isn't that interesting? Isn't it? Isn't it interesting? He's fighting a guy who presents a lot of danger to him, but then when we flip it over -- see, he's putting himself in danger, but if the other guy wins, will he have the same heart that Amir got? See, he might win, but do you have the heart that he has to put yourself in danger? You say you wanna be great, well if you wanna be great, well, that's what you gotta do, you gotta do what Amir Khan did to face you. You know what I'm talking about."

Sign up for the newsletter Sign up for the Bad Left Hook Daily Roundup newsletter!

A daily roundup of all your global boxing news from Bad Left Hook