Amir Khan mostly outclassed Samuel Vargas today in England, but being Amir Khan there were still tense moments for the British star.
Amir Khan (33-4, 20 KOs) was supposed to dominate Canadian based fringe contender Samuel Vargas (29-4-2, 14 KOs) today in his second tune up fight under the banners of Matchroom Boxing. Vargas was an upgrade from his woefully overmatched first opponent in Phil Lo Greco, but he still had been soundly defeated in step ups against the likes of Errol Spence Jr and Danny Garcia. Vargas had also struggled well below that level on multiple occasions as well. On the entire scale of the boxing world, Samuel Vargas is a good fighter. World class opponents shouldn’t struggle with him though.
Did Amir Khan struggle? Mostly, no. His hand speeds and reflexes remain and that alone was enough to carry the British star to a near shutout victory. For the vast majority of the fight, Khan was every bit as in control as you’d expect. He hurt Vargas a few times too, most notably in the second round when he sent him to the canvas. It looked like this might be another quick night for the junior welterweight titleholder, but then disaster struck at the very end of the round as Amir seemed to let his guard down. An overhead right from basically no where deposited the Brit on the floor in return. It was a reminder that Amir Khan is always in danger whenever he is in a boxing ring.
The Bolton man survived the few seconds remaining in the round and cruised for a while from there. He scored another official knockdown in the third from a questionable shot, but much more importantly he had an extremely dominant fifth that looked on the verge of finishing the fight a few times. Stamina didn’t seem to be on his side, however, and Vargas improbably worked his way back into the fight in the seventh and eighth. This caused Amir to return to form in the ninth under a renewed sense of urgency, but again he couldn’t maintain it.
The whole event nearly fell apart late in the tenth. A big right hand from Vargas, who generally isn’t a puncher might I add, crunched right on Khan’s barely existent chin. His legs were gone and he nearly went down. Another big shot might have ended the night, but it never found its mark and Amir was able to survive the round. He fought a cautious final two frames by boxing from range to seal the near shutout decision. He was dropped in the second and badly hurt in the tenth, but outside of those two moments Amir Khan dominated the fight. Scores came back 119-109, 119-108, and 118-110. I had it 117-111, but it hardly matters.
This fight was Amir Khan in a nutshell. He is a tremendous talent and athlete, but he just can’t take a clean shot. He’s liable to be knocked out by mid-level guys without a whole lot in terms of power, let alone the elites of the sport. In my view he will have a near impossible time getting the wins in the big fights that he craves. If he gets a Manny Pacquiao or Kell Brook next, Khan will need to be perfect for twelve rounds to pull it off while those two men would just need a couple good shots to get the win on their end. It is hard to see him succeeding in the big money fights he wants, but he might know that. The payday is the point in prize fighting, I suppose.
