Virgil Hunter Interview about Amir Khan

VIRGIL HUNTER, respected trainer of Amir Khan and Andre Berto, is determined to harness the former’s talent after he missed out on a fight with Floyd Mayweather, who will instead face Berto.

Khan has been pursuing a fight with Mayweather for some time, but has once again been snubbed by the unbeaten star, who has elected to face Berto on September 12.

Hunter, who also trains pound-for-pound star Andre Ward, told Boxing News he is yet to speak to Khan since the announcement, but has big plans for his charge.

“Amir has a chance, an opportunity, in boxing to carve out his own legacy if he continues to listen and put forth his effort and exhibit his passion,” he said.

“He hasn’t even scratched the surface yet, I’m still in an experimental stage with him.

“To mentally get him fully there, if I can do that, because he has a lot on his plate and it’s unfortunate we’re not in the same city, but I’m constantly reinforcing this – I won’t let up. He’ll have to move on before I let up. I won’t let this type of talent waste away. I’m adamant about his development.

“We’ll see how that goes, but I expect to talk to him next week and for him to be training out here [at Hunter’s gym in California] in mid-September.”

Now operating at welterweight, having won world titles at 140lbs, Khan could be matched with some of the top names in a stacked division, such as Keith Thurman and Danny Garcia, who stopped Khan in 2012.

Promoter Bob Arum has also recently claimed Khan could face his fighter, Manny Pacquiao, in the Middle East sometime next year.

While he did not namedrop any specific fighters for Khan’s next outing, expected to be late this year, Hunter maintains he wants Khan to fight the very best.

“He’s at his best when he knows he has a challenge. When he has a tough, tough challenge in front of him he’s at his best,” he opined.

“I don’t like him in a situation where he thinks it’s easy because mentally he’ll slack off. When you have his kind of ability, you can sometimes slack off mentally. He could be one of the best that ever did it.”

http://www.boxingnewsonline.net/exclusive-virgil-hunter-amir-khan-could-be-one-of-the-best-that-ever-did-it/

To me this sounds like Hunter is struggling to get Amir to fight how he wants him to fight. The biggest issue people seem to have with Khan's boxing ability is his ring intelligence. Gets tagged and fights fire with fire. Freddie Roach said when Khan left him that the things he was doing in fights were things he took upon himself to do and were never in the game plan. Seems like it's still an ongoing issue.

Amir resembles a spider with all the balls in the world that always tries to fight the fabled hawk wasp with fire and always comes off second best.

Coach can't train him to not fight fire with fire when stunned, it's simply in his nature and the old saying that a fighter will always revert to suit (Khan's being getting in to a tear up) when tagged is well documented when applying it to Khan, to the detriment of his senses.

Get him in with Thurman, needs a marquee name as he can't keep fighting B-Level fighters and keep calling out the big boys. At least Brook is fighting crap and not making a song and dance about him being Pacquiao's only option for his next fight.

Coxy001 wrote:Amir resembles a spider with all the balls in the world that always tries to fight the fabled hawk wasp with fire and always comes off second best.

31-3.

Scottrf wrote:

Coxy001 wrote:Amir resembles a spider with all the balls in the world that always tries to fight the fabled hawk wasp with fire and always comes off second best.

31-3.

Scottrf wrote:

Coxy001 wrote:Amir resembles a spider with all the balls in the world that always tries to fight the fabled hawk wasp with fire and always comes off second best.

31-3.

Garcia: Tried exchanging fire, got sparked
Prescott: Tried exchanging fire, got sparked
Maidana: Got away with it just about, not so sure against the more refined version of Maidana nowadays
Peterson: Dropped a decision when he could've pranced around to an easy victory

I wasn't being literal across his whole career. But I will wager £5,000,000,000,000 that he gets knocked out again in his career by getting reckless and trying to fight fire with fire.

Lost once in 7 years...........legally..

Been sparked once in 7 years and was dominating before it....

I think he was taking the p**s out of the comparison of a spider always losing to a hawk wasp when he's 31-3..

it was a bit stupid...

Khan dominated the 1st 2 rounds of a 12 round fight against Garcia, lost the 3rd after taking a fair few body shots and getting decked, and took a 4th round battering, its a myth to say he was dominating the fight.

If Khan had got stopped in round 10 after winning every round that's what you call getting stopped after dominating a fight, not after losing 2 of 4 rounds.

He was dominating till he got caught....

That was the end of the fight for all intents and purposes...

He looked much the better operator....

Come on..

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:He was dominating till he got caught....

That was the end of the fight for all intents and purposes...

He looked much the better operator....

Come on..

He won 2 of 4 rounds, a comparison Kirkland Laing giving Colin Jones a boxing lesson twice for 8 rounds and getting caught and stopped both times in the 9th, that for me is dominating and losing.

Manny was one point up after 6 against JMM in their first fight..

But JMM dominated most of the first 6...

Khan until he got caught was comfortable...

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:Manny was one point up after 6 against JMM in their first fight..

But JMM dominated most of the first 6...

Khan until he got caught was comfortable...

He also looked horrible against Algeiri