2019-04-21, posts

“I lost. Here’s why.”

Terence Crawford dominated the entire fight. He knocked Amir Khan down in the first round and kept him at bay while punishing every little mistake in the following rounds. Amir Khan was, by every measure, losing the fight. Then Terence Crawford landed a low blow. He didn’t mean to, but he landed a punch on Amir below the belt. I’m sure it hurt, and it’s against the rules. But it happens on accident fairly often. In boxing, a fighter who gets hit with a low blow gets five minutes to rest and recover to continue the fight. But at this point, Virgil Hunter—Amir Khan’s trainer—must have been thinking about throwing in the towel for his fighter. Khan was getting destroyed. If things continued as they would have, an ugly and dangerous knockout would have ended the fight, putting Khan in unnecessary danger. Virgil Hunter asked Amir if he could continue. The answer was no—the ref waved his hands above his head. The fight was over. The low blow allowed Amir Khan to save face. It was an opportune moment to quit, because it looks like he got injured, not defeated. He kept repeating, in post-fight interviews, that he’s a fighter who never quits, and didn’t in this fight. The only reason, he claims, that he didn’t continue was because of the low blow. But that’s bullshit. If Khan was winning the fight against Terence Crawford and then got hit with the low blow, I guarantee that Khan would have taken the full five minutes and continued the fight. Amir Khan quit against Terence Crawford whether it looks like it or not. Not helpful: “I would never quit,” especially when you did. We need more: “I lost; here’s why.”