Khan Defeats Collazo

By Parvez Fatteh, Founder of http://sportingummah.com, sports@muslimobserver.com

Amir Khan (R): Was back on top form against Luis Collazo

British-Pakistani pugilist Amir Khan defeated American Luis Collazo on points in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand this past weekend, to win his first fight as a welterweight. Khan knocked Collazo to the floor in the fourth round and twice in the 10th. The judges scored the fight 117-106, 119-104, 119-104 overwhelmingly in Khan’s favor. Now Khan has his sights on a dream fight with American champion Floyd Mayweather, who beat Marcos Maidana on the same card on Saturday to unify the WBA and WBC title belts.

“Definitely, people want to see that fight between me and Floyd,” Khan said. “Styles make fights and I really believe I have the style to trouble Floyd Mayweather,” said 27-year-old Khan. “Collazo has been beaten before but they were close fights when he fought Shane Mosley and Andre Berto.” “A lot of people want the fight now because they want a young lion to come up and they want to see him get beat. He is getting older and showing a lot of mistakes that he didn’t used to do,” Khan added. “It is a great time to catch him. Floyd looks beatable. The only person who has the chance to do that is me. I’m very, very close to the Mayweather fight. The fight will happen because the public will demand this fight.”

Khan was full of praise for his American trainer Virgil Hunter, who has been in his corner for his last three fights. “Virgil Hunter taught me some things and I put them together,” said Khan, who now has 29 wins (19 KOs) and three defeats from 32 pro fights. Khan had not fought for 13 months and his last outing was an unimpressive victory over Julio Diaz in Sheffield last year.

The victory was particularly sweet for Khan, who had expected to fight Mayweather on the bill but was overlooked in favor of Maidana. Khan had turned down a fight against then IBF welterweight champion Devon Alexander last year in order to concentrate on Mayweather, before being given the brush-off. Now Khan hopes he may finally be in line for a dream fight with American legend Floyd Mayweather after returning to the ring with an emphatic win.

Khan is unlikely to fight Mayweather in September because it is too close to the end of Ramadan. Mayweather has three fights left on his contract with American television network Showtime, so Khan will be shooting for a bout with him next May.

16-20