The hype surrounding 22-year-old lightweight prospect may not be the same since his stunning first-round knockout loss to Breidis Prescott last September, but the 2004 Olympic silver medallist has the full confidence of his head trainer, Freddie Roach, as they prepare in Los Angeles for Khan’s showdown with multiple world champion “The Baby Faced Assassin” Marco Antonio Barrera, Saturday, March 14th at The M.E.N. Arena in Manchester, United Kingdom.
Integrated Sports is distributing three 12-round bouts featured on the “Khan-Barrera” pay-per-view card in North America for live viewing at 4 PM/ET – 1 PM/PT on cable and satellite pay-per-view via iN Demand, TVN, DirecTV and Dish Network in the United States, as well as Viewer’s Choice and Bell TV in Canada, for a suggested retail price of only $24.95. Veteran blow-by-blow announcer Ian Darke and color analyst, former WBC lightweight champion Jim Watt, will be calling the action from ringside for Sky Box Office and Integrated Sports PPV.
Khan (19-1, 15 KOs), training at Roach’s famed Wild Card Gym, in preparation for multi-division champion Barrera (65-6, 42 KOs) in the main event. The two other PPV fights will be former WBO cruiserweight title-holder Enzo Maccarinelli (29-2, 22 KOs) against Ola “Kryptonite” Afolabi (13-1-3, 5 KOs) for the WBO cruiserweight championship, while WBO super featherweight champion Nicky “Cookie” Cook (29-1, 16 KOs) defends his title belt against Roman “Rocky” Martinez (21-0-1, 12 KOs).
Khan is coming off of a win by second-round TKO of Oisin Fagan. Shockingly, Roach favourably compares his prospect, Khan, with his ace, pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao. “Athleticism, speed…..everything,” Roach explained why he believes Amir will emerge victoriously. “Barrera’s best was at 122 and 126; Amir is a big 135-pounder. It’s the perfect time – 22-year-old kid against a 35-year-old veteran. We respect Barrera and there’s a lot we have to lookout from him. Barrera can set-up guys with his experience but we’ve really prepared for that.
“Amir reminds me a lot of Manny Pacquiao. They’re both very athletic and Amir is the only guy who can run with Manny. I remember Manny getting knocked out early in his career (by Rustico Torrecampo in 1996) and everybody writing him off. Amir came in on a bigger stage from the Olympics, but I believe he’ll rebound and become world champion. I brought Amir here (Wild Card) to camp to be with Manny and sparring together built Amir’s confidence. If he can do as well as he did with Manny, he can do as well against anybody. He just made a young man’s mistake against Prescott, going for the knockout, and he got caught. Anybody can get caught and Amir is perfecting his defense. He has come along well since his first fight (vs. Fagan) with me.”
Barrera, who has held world titles in three different weight classes during his 19-year pro career, holds wins against a Who’s Who of contemporary world champions and/or challengers such as Erik Morales (twice), Paulie Ayala, Prince Naseem Hamed, Kevin Kelly, Johnny Tapia, Robbie Peden, Mzonke Fana, and Rocky Juarez (twice).
Maccarinelli defeated Mohamed Azzaoui, Wayne Braithwite, Bobby Gunn, Marcelo Fabian Dominguez and Mark Hobson (twice) during his WBO title reign (2006-2008). The London-born Afolabi, now living in California, stopped previously unbeaten Eric Fields in the 10th round.
Cook won the WBO super featherweight title in his last fight, taking a 12-round unanimous decision from Alex Arthur (26-1) last September in The M.E.N. Arena.