Thaxton ordered to face Khan

Amir Khan will get the chance to challenge Jon Thaxton for the British lightweight title after the British Boxing Board of Control ordered Thaxton to defend the title against Khan, who is the Commonwealth champion. Purse bids will be opened at the Board's offices in Cardiff on January 9, with the bout to take place by the end of April.

As I was in Las Vegas, I did not get a chance to see Khan's win over Graham Earl until Tuesday, when it was the first thing I watched on the Sky Plus box when getting in from Heathrow (even before the latest edition of America's Next Top Model!!) But what a mightily impressive win it was.

There were even hints of Floyd Mayweather Jr in his work, the way that he used the speed of his punches to deliver the power. The double left hook that he knocked Earl down with was truly brilliant. And make no mistake, a win over Earl is the first really world-class win of Khan's professional career. Apart from being the former British and Commonwealth champion, Earl also beat Yuri Romanov, who is now European champion. I fancied Khan to win early, because the style match-up suited Khan (Earl being a basically tough, walk-forward type) but I didn't  expect him to win that early.

Khan was rated No 13 by the WBC before the bout, he is likely now to jump into the top ten. He is also rated No 6 by the WBO (Earl was No 8) but, let's face it, the WBO rank Gary Lockett their No 1 middleweight, so their judgment doesn't count for much. The WBA also had Khan at No 15.

I would think Khan should be able to beat Thaxton without too much difficulty. Thaxton is tough, can punch, and has won his last 12 bouts, a run that stretches back to 2002. But Dave Stewart, who has a similar stand-up style to Khan, ran him desperately close before running out of steam in Thaxton's last defence in October. That bout will be more or less a blueprint for Khan to beat Thaxton.

It would be a fair guess that unless Frank Warren, who has a contract with Khan and one with ITV to show Khan's bouts, does not win the purse bids then this bout is unlikely to happen. Indeed it is also possible that Warren makes an offer to Mick Hennessy, Thaxton's promoter, to bypass the purse bid altogether. Khan's next bout is due to be on February 2 at the new King's Dock Arena in Liverpool (with Paul Smith and Derry Mathews both on the bill too). Let's hope cool heads get together to bring us that bout then.

Comments

[Kevin Taylor]

Although a great fight on paper I can't see it happening.

Thaxton possesses the punch that could KO most of today's lightweights and I can't see Team Khan taking the risk of fighting him when they can go down the European route against Yuri Romanov, although more skilful he doesn't pack that one punch power of Thaxton.

Will Team Khan claim that Khan is now above domestic level after beating Britain's number one Graham Earl, so therefore avoiding the fight with Thaxton, who will be the first opponent that Khan will face that is bigger than him, Thaxton some how boils down to lightweight even though he fought domestically as a light-welter for years.

Of course Thaxton used to be managed by Frank Warren so maybe he knows something we don’t, maybe he thinks Thaxton is finished and the time is ripe to take him!