Make or break for Khan in career-defining Canelo clash

Lee Gormley | February 3, 2016

High stakes for Khan with Canelo choice

On May 7th this year, Amir Khan will enter the Las Vegas ring to collide with Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, in a surprise WBC middleweight title match-up that will surely define the Bolton fighter’s career.

At 29 years of age, more than a decade on from his star-making Silver Medal showing at the Olympic Games in Athens, Khan (31-3, 19 KOs) has the opportunity to put himself back on the global boxing map, after recent years of teetering on the edge of obscurity due to various setbacks.

Such a match-up with reigning WBC middleweight title holder Canelo (46-1-1, 32 KOs) came as a shock to the boxing world, with Khan’s decision to meet arguably the sport’s biggest star since Floyd Mayweather Jr retired being hailed as a truly brave one.

The Greater Manchester fighter has been installed as the 3/1 outsider with Coral to prevail, and should he triumph, he would become only the fourth Briton to clinch the lineal middleweight crown, following Alan Minter, Terry Downes and Randy Turpin, and the first in almost four decades. No pressure then.

Middleweight debut for Bolton’s best

Khan, a two-time light-welterweight world champion, undoubtedly faces a mammoth task later this year, with Mexican bruiser Canelo representing the most formidable challenge of his career, at a testing 155lbs catchweight; a weight which the latter relished against Miguel Cotto.