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Most of us aren’t buying into this fight, but Amir Khan still wants to convince us we’ll have the time of our lives and owe it all to him: “Fans know that they get their money’s worth when they watch me. I mean it’s all fireworks,” Khan says in a SpikeTV promo video, with a smirk that reflects a mix of arrogance and delusion.
Even though the fight is on Chris Algieri’s turf, Khan believes he’ll have a lot of fans too. He goes on to say, “It’s going to be an electrical fight because I’m going to show the New York fans what they’ve been missing.”
He does speak on renowned trainer Virgil Hunter and what it’s like working with him. Much of Khan’s success as of late can be attributed to training with Hunter, who is also trainer to pound-for-pound champion Andre Ward.
“He’s one of the best trainers in the world, but when he’s at the boxing gym there’s no laughing and joking. He’s very serious at what he does. You have to listen to him; you have to take everything seriously. He’ll tell me what to do, he’ll give me a gameplan to stick to in the fight, which I will stick to and it’ll make the fight easier. He’s always telling me off at times, but that’s only because he wants me to win.”
Interestingly, Chris Algieri has trained under new leadership for this fight by working with former professional fighter, John David Jackson. On changing trainers Algieri says, “It shows that I’m taking this sport very seriously…I’ve revamped things and added experience, and now we’re going to go out and test it at the highest level. I’m not tiptoeing into it.”
Tiptoeing into it, especially after that terrible loss to Manny Pacquiao, may actually have been a good idea, new trainer or not. Algieri owns up to his awful performance against Pacquiao, and then goes on to say, “I like to challenge myself and this is a great opportunity. I’m ready for this, I will challenge anybody in the Welterweight division.” Famous last words.
The real question is…will Jackson let Algieri out of the cage?
