Khan vs Bradley - who takes it?
- Thread starter CroZ
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I think Bradley can handle the hand speed of Khan and keep it competitive, I also can see him headbutting Khan at some point. Khan strikes me as a guy that would mentally fold at the sight of his own blood, (almost Juan Diaz'esque). That being said Bradley probably will adjust to Khan's handspeed at end up with a UD.
nicedistraction
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khan. i dont have a lot of faith in bradley. this wont be a good fight either. it will drag on uneventfully
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You have more faith in the guy whose been starched in a single round, and faded late, running for his life against a bruiser with no basic skill level, than a guy who has roughed up every viable challenger that's come his way?
nicedistraction
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i have faith in freddy roach is what it pretty much comes down to.
ive also said many times khan will be ktfo again and it will be freakin glorious, but bradley aint the one
ive also said many times khan will be ktfo again and it will be freakin glorious, but bradley aint the one
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The thing about Bradley is that he's extremely difficult to train to beat, because he can adapt. He beat Kendall Holt from the outside. He beat Witter from the outside. He beat Alexander and Abregu on the inside. Wherever you're least comfortable, that's where he's going to fight you. Roach is smart enough to make it close, but I can't say for certain that Khan has the composure to stick to a plan for 36 minutes against a guy with comparable speed, and grittiness of that sort.
nicedistraction
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i see another 1,1,2 fest from khan, which could keep bradley at bay. it might not, but i think khans hand speed will be enough to.
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Eh, Bradley knows how to slip and over-hand that. And Khan stands with his back straight still. That's why Maidana was catching him with slower, more poorly-timed right hands than Bradley throws.
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Hard to tell. Both their last fights were so anti climatic. I think Devon Alexander is better than McCloskey though
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I thought Bradley fought perfectly to foil Alexander's style. He made Devon look like he didn't know how to fight. Considering how Devon looked against Kotelnik, who marches forward, Bradley did pretty much exactly what I thought he should. Im not sure why people thought it was going to be a shootout.
I didn't see the McCloskey fight yet.
consortium11
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McClosky stands there with his hands low, waiting...Khan throws one of his lightning fast combinations which basically all miss or at least don't land clean with McClosky moving his head and upperbody, Khan being off balance and open to counters but McClosky not throwing a counter-punch. Repeat 3 or 4 times before McClosky finally throws a counter shot which Khan partially blocks, Khan circles away holding his hands up to show he's not hurt. Repeat for 6 rounds with Khan slowing down and starting to look tired before an accidental headbut leads to one of the softest stoppages I've ever seen.
Until recently I had Khan in this. He'd looked pretty sensational against the likes of Salita (of course, not worth much) and Paulie and had a disciplined gameplan against Kotelnik which he executed to perfection. I thought his speed and offence would be too much for Bradley, especially early when Bradley has a habit of leaving himself open to get caught (see his bout with Holt) with Khan having the killer instinct to finish it off. Despite the flaws he showed in the Maidana fight it also showed that Khan's chin at 140 isn't the porcelain it was at 135lbs with him taking clean shots from probably the biggest pure puncher in the division and not going down. He didn't deal with them well at all but not going down is a feat in and of itself. I dismissed him fading late... it was bound to happen in a Maidana type match.
Now... now I think I edge towards Bradley.
It's unfair to dismiss a fighter entirely on his last fight. People have bad days at the office, face opponents who are simply a stylistic nightmare etc etc. But it's not unfair to examine the flaws those fights show up. One of the reasons I picked Bradley over Alexander was because Alexander showed a complete inability to deal with someone who simply comes forward while protecting themselves when facing Kotelnik... arguably requiring some pretty severe homecooking to win the bout... and I knew that was something Bradley could do exceptionally well.
Khan's flaw in the McClosky fight was one that's always been there but was overshadowed by his chin when it came to critiques or criticism. Khan has horrible footwork. On both offence and defence he walks himself into corners, puts himself off balance, opens himself up to punches and generally comes damn near to tripping over his own feet. His exceptional speed (of hand and foot) covers up for much of it but the flaw remains. McClosky was defensively sound enough to create those situations but not able to pull the trigger (at least in the 6 rounds that made up the fight) to exploit it.
Now, Bradley's style doesn't naturally suit itself to that type of fight. He can box on the outside and inside but he virtually always comes forward and uses pressure, not sitting back and making the opponent comes to him. Coming forward against Khan is dangerous as his speed and reflexes (at least with regard to punches) make him great at throwing counter shots which he can follow up on. But you know what... I think Bradley can do it. Khan's also showed a propensity to tire in the mid to late rounds... and he's changed strength and conditioning coaches, dropping the guy who is arguably the best in the business right now, which has led to a much more heavily muscled upper body which could explain the way he was tiring in the McClosky bout. I think Khan takes the early rounds as Bradley adapts to the speed but as the fight wears on Bradley... who finishes the 12th as he starts the first... uses intelligent pressure on a tiring Khan to force him to make footwork mistakes... and he uses those mistakes as a chance to wear Khan down and eat him up. I don't think jabbing and running (as he did to Kotelnik) works against Bradley which means at some point Khan has to fight... and that's where Bradley takes the fight either by a reasonably comfortable decision or a late stoppage down to constant aggression as opposed to one clean shot.
There is one caveat though. If Bradley is too aggressive too early and gets dropped the whole fight changes. Khan is a very good finisher and Bradley has been dropped early before. If Bradley is too comfortable too early and doesn't respect Khan's speed or ability to counter then I can quite easily see him walking onto something and getting hurt... and while he recovers well I think Khan may well take the opportunity to finish the fight... or at the very least force a ref to step in by throwing a huge number of punches at a covering up Bradley.
consortium11
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He's got about 2 inches/5cm on Bradley.
Edit: That doesn't tell quite the fully story. Khan's also got about 4 inches in height which generally makes that reach more effective and he also fights long, often reaching with punches which again extends the reach.
