Boxing Preview – Friday, July 12th, 2019 at 7.00 pm
Amir Khan hops back into action after his shortened battle against Terence Crawford. Khan was hit with a low blow in the bout, an accidental one, which forced his corner to throw in the towel halfway through the fight. Khan’s groin, as well as his reputation, took a hefty hit because of that result, with a lot of people saying that he had run from the challenge of the American, who was heavily out-boxing him.
Amir Khan v Billy Dib Winner Odds*
Amir Khan 1/25
Billy Dib 10/1
* (Betting odds taken from Bet365 on July 11th, 2019 at 4:41 am)
Will Khan beat Dib to restore some confidence?
Khan has lost two of his last four fights now, the one against Crawford and that big middleweight title showdown against Canelo Alvarez in May 2016. Since then in between those two fights were wins over Phil lo Greco and Samuel Vargas, neither of them for title fights. Looking back you have to start to wonder about the big distraction that Khan had in trying to get up to middleweight to take on Alvarez.
It was a bridge too far for him, a big one at that and it exposed him to his first knockout defeat for four years. There wasn’t enough done by Khan in between the loss against Alvarez in a higher weight division and taking on Terence Crawford back in the welterweight division, for Khan to pose a massive threat to the American. Khan was put down in the first round by Crawford and never really looked like he was going to threaten. He was massively behind on points when the fight was stopped.
Dib replaces Goyat
Khan was supposed to be meeting Indian boxing superstar Neeraj Goyat in this bout. But Goyat was involved in a bad car accident last month which meant that he had to pull out of this because of some serious injuries. So Australian Billy Dib has gotten the call to fight Khan in this bout which is in Saudi Arabia. Khan, who is of Pakistani heritage was looking forward to facing an Indian opponent, using the event to bring together the two countries.
But in facing Dib, Khan is facing up to a fighter with a bigger and better career record than that of Goyat. Dib is certainly a bigger name in the global arena and he has worked under Mike Tyson during his career. That having been said, this is Dib’s biggest fight of his career by a mile. He went up for the WBO featherweight crown in 2008 and lost, but picked up the IBF belt at the same weight and held it for a couple of years before losing it in 2013. So Dib, who is naturally a super-featherweight, is ‘doing a Khan’ really and stepping up divisions in facing Khan at welterweight, which is no easy thing to pull off at all.
The Records
Khan’s professional record is now W33 L5. The loss against Crawford really has set him back again in terms of top titles. This one’s for the vacant WBC International welterweight title. As for Dib, he is at W45 D5 in a massive career. Since losing his IBF featherweight it Evgeny Gradovich in 2013 and a WBC super-featherweight title shot in 2015 it wasn’t until last year that he had another shot at a title. That was the vacant IBF super-featherweight title against Tevin Farmer which Dib lost.
Prediction
Dib has been missing out on titles in his own division and to have to jump up to welterweight is such a bit ask of him. He has a seasoned pro and nothing much more than that really. We should see Khan land a win and by a stoppage too. But this is about how well Khan wins and how much he can repair a bit of a damaged reputation. Khan in Round 5-8 at 5/2 odds* (Betting odds taken from Bet365 on July 11th, 2019 at 4:41 am).
