By Niall Doran
Woke up at 4.45am this morning, turned on Sky, and low and behold the Amir Khan v Carlos Molina fight was only starting. Right from the start you could tell Khan was being a bit more patient in his approach, boxing behind the jab more and stepping out straight away after getting his combinations off. For the most part I have to say I thought Khan boxed probably as good as he ever has. He really showed his class, speed and superior boxing brain tonight. There were however some moments in the fight were he did get caught by a right hand coming in over the top again. One wonders what would have happened if he had been fighting a bigger puncher than Molina. Molina to his credit was extremely tough and took Khan’s punishment all night, with his face turning into a bloody mess as the fight went on. Finally after the 10th round the ref mercifully called the fight off to hand Khan a TKO victory. Afterwards Khan called out Danny Garcia who was in attendance for the fight. Would be great to see a rematch between those two next year!
Elsewhere in Houston Texas, Nonito Donaire put on a scintillating display to knock out Jorge Arce in the 3rd round with a devastating left hook. His close rival Cuban Rigondeaux had been due to fight but the fight was cancelled due to his opponent testing positive for HIV. Hopefully we see Rigondeaux v Donaire in 2013 to find out who really is the best super bantamweight in the world.
Back in the UK George Groves took another step on his road to a world title shot by winning a unanimous points victory over Glen Johnson. In what was a great fight Groves ran out clear winner, even dropping Johnson in the final round. After this impressive victory I suspect big things are in store for Groves next year. For Johnson perhaps that was the last time we will see ‘The Road Warrior’ in the ring.
Elsewhere in the UK Billy Joe Saunders endured a tough fight to overcome Nick Blackwell. Saunders scraped the decision in what was sure to be a great learning fight for him where he was forced to dig deep many times to defend his Commonwealth title.
