British fighter Amir Khan will be hopping back into the ring later this month. He will be going up against Billy Dib for the vacant WBC International Welterweight title on July 12th. This bout is being hosted at the King Abdullah Sports City Stadium in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia played host to the final of the World Boxing Super Series super middleweight section last year. This however, is a whole new level of fight. The fight will be broadcast by Channel 5.
This is a groundbreaking bout that Khan is going to be stepping into. He will be the first high-profile Muslim to fight in Jeddah. Khan was scheduled to go up against India’s Neeraj Goyat, but his opponent, the darling of Indian boxing, suffered some serious injuries in a recent car crash which means that he has had to pull out. Khan, who is from Pakistani heritage, was using the high-profile fight to promote unity between Pakistan and India.
The Terence Crawford Fall Out
Just back in April, Amir Khan was up against Terence Crawford. That was a headliner at Madison Square Garden in New York. It was a high profile, big purse fight for the WBO welterweight title. Khan though was never really in the fight though. The British fighter was looking a step slower and a bit sluggish. He struggled to make an impact.
Khan was outboxed pretty much from the get-go. He was sent to the canvas in the opening round. His corner threw in the towel in the sixth round of the fight after Khan had been left hurt by an accidental low blow to the groin. So the fight came to a disappointing conclusion. But with Crawford having been so far ahead on the scorecards halfway through the fight when it was halted, it all seemed to be heading to a comprehensive win for the American regardless of how.
A point to prove
Khan took a lot of stick from the American fighter and media pundits, because of how the fight ended. People started saying that he had simply given up and had run away from the challenge. So he is on a bit of a mission to turn out a good performance once again. He has suffered two losses in his last four fights now. Back in May 2016, Khan lost out in his big shot at the WBC middleweight title against Canelo Alvarez. Khan was stopped in the sixth.
So there is that too. His last two defeats have come in some big-time fights, so can he cut it anymore at the top of the game? Khan’s overall pro career record now stands at 33-5 and he is back in his preferred welterweight zone. Even though the leading bookmakers have Khan as the 1/14 odds-on favourite, there is going to be heavy scrutiny on the former Olympic Champion. His feet movement and hands were really slow against Crawford.
Billy “The Kid” Dib
Even though the fight against Goyat was being highly billed because of the heritages of the two respective fighters, Dib may be a more difficult opponent for Khan. The Australian has pretty much fought his career at four divisions beneath Khan, mostly at super-featherweight. He is a pretty seasoned fighter though with a 45-5 career record. So the 33-year-old knows his way around the ring. He used to train with Mike Tyson and was signed up by promoter Oscar De La Hoya.
Dibs, a bigger name in the sport than Goyat, is a former IBF Featherweight champion. When he lost it on his third title defence against Evgeny Gradovich a couple of years later, that was pretty much it for him in terms of titles. He did go up against Tevin Farmer for the vacant IBF super-featherweight title in August last year. But Dib lost that on a unanimous decision. So now this is a big step up through the divisions for him to take on such a prominent fighter. This will be, simply, the biggest fight of his career.
Summary
It’s never easy going up through the decision to punch above your weight. Ask Khan himself when he tried to do it against Canelo Alvarez. This is a whole new challenge for Dib on his return to the ring, his first meaningful fight since meeting Farmer. The last fight that “The Kid” had was a first-round knockout success against Fonluang Sor Singyu in April which served as no indicator whatsoever.
Dib isn’t a big hitter really and shouldn’t be a major threat to Khan, certainly not as a 10/1 underdog. But as far as the Khan camp is concerned, it’s not about much else here other than putting on a show. His status has been knocked back with those defeats against Alvarez and Crawford. The media has started to turn against him. He needs to send a message to the opponents at the top of the division and silence fickle critics for a while.
