Canelo Alvarez (left) and Amir Khan, flanking promoter Oscar De La Hoya at Universal Studios, will fight May 7 at the new T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. – Amir Khan remains polite but is clearly tired of being asked about his knockout losses to Breidis Prescott in 2008 and Danny Garcia in 2012, two of three losses in an otherwise strong career.

“I’m 29 now. I was (21) then, a baby,” said Khan, referring specifically to the Prescott loss.

The reality is that fans can’t help but to think of the brave but spaghetti-legged fighter who was hurt so badly in those fights, two reasons many believe he’ll wilt under the power of Canelo Alvarez when they meet on May 7 in Las Vegas on pay-per-view TV.

Khan, an Olympic silver medalist in 2004 and 18-0 as a pro, was a sizzling hot prospect when he stepped into the ring to face the also-unbeaten Prescott in Manchester. That’s why the result was so stunning. The fight had barely started when Khan went down from a huge left, managed to get up but was put down again to end the fight 54 seconds after the opening bell.

Khan didn’t have much to say about that disaster but his trainer, Virgil Hunter, did. Hunter said the fight should never have happened given Prescott’s well-known punching power.

“Amir should never have been in with Prescott at that stage of his career,” said Hunter, who wasn’t working with Khan at the time. “ÔǪ You don’t put a prospect (with so few fights) in with a puncher. You bring a sparring partner in who can punch. That’s how you get used to it. ÔǪ You get used to the jarring (impact), you develop alertness, the ability to foresee something like that.

“No, he never should’ve been in there with Prescott.”

Khan bounced back to win a world 140-pound title the following year, as it appeared he would fulfill his promise after all. Then, after losing a controversial decision to Lamont Peterson, he fought Garcia in Las Vegas.

Khan had controlled the first two-plus rounds when Garcia landed a left hook to his neck, putting him down and hurting him badly late in the third. The Briton, whose heart is never questioned, got up and survived the round. He also fought bravely in the fourth, even landing some of his shots. Then he went down twice more and it was over.

That loss seemed to frustrate Khan more than the Prescott setback did.

“I was winning and I lost focus in that fight,” he said. “Obviously, if that fight happened now, I don’t think I’d make that mistake.”

Said Hunter: “You have to remember: These guys (Prescott and Garcia) were punchers. Garcia is a guy who can punch with his left hook and (Khan) got up from that and actually started landing on Garcia again. ÔǪ He went back in showing that heart; he wanted to man it out. That lets me know can take a punch because he got up.”

In the long run, Khan says, devastating losses can work in your favor. He believes he wouldn’t be the fighter he is today had he not suffered those setbacks, which he says serve as valuable lessons.

“Look, in boxing, sometimes you need these hiccups, you need the speed bumps you hit,” Khan said to a group of reporters at a press conference to promote the Alvarez fight. “They made me ÔǪ more focused and disciplined, more mature. When you’re winning everything, you think, ‘I’m the best, no one hurt me.’ You take things lightly.”

“ÔǪ The times I’ve been put down, I wasn’t thinking. I was relying on my speed and power. Now I think more. Look at my last few fights at 147; I’ve been much smarter, sticking to the game plan, more focused, and I’ve never really been hurt. As I’m getting older, I’m getting wiser. I’m (avoiding) getting hit with those shots.”

ANOTHER LESSON LEARNED

Alvarez says he also learned a valuable lesson recently.

Most people believe he did more than enough to earn his one-sided unanimous decision over Miguel Cotto in his last fight, on Nov. 21, which earned him the RING and WBC middleweight titles. However, no one – not even his own handlers – were dazzled by his performance.

One example: He threw very few combinations, which might’ve prevented him from taking firm control of the fight. It was as if Alvarez was holding back.

“Canelo is a thousand times better than he was against (Floyd Mayweather Jr.), especially after the Miguel Cotto fight,” said Oscar De La Hoya, Alvarez’s promoter. “Now he knows he doesn’t have to fight perfectly to win. In that fight, everything he wanted to do he had to do perfectly. He didn’t want to be off balance, he didn’t want to throw weird combinations.

“I told him, ‘Just go in there and fight, go in there and just throw punches and put on a show.’ He was waiting for the perfect moment; that was the biggest flaw in that fight. If he does that against Khan, that could be very dangerous for Canelo.”

Alvarez got the message.

“Yeah, I know that might be the case,” he said through a translator. “I learned a lot from that fight. I think, yeah, maybe I could’ve given a little more. I feel like I might’ve left a little on the table there. ÔǪ I came out with more confidence. That’s what I got out of that fight. I feel if I fight him again, it will be a different story.”

EARLY DOUBTS

Hunter said he didn’t like the Alvarez-Khan matchup when he first learned of it for the same reason others had their doubts: The size difference. The fighters have agreed to a catchweight of 155 pounds, eight more than that at which Khan has ever fought.

Then he saw his protege, who hasn’t fought since he outpointed Chris Algieri in May of last year.

“I hadn’t seen Amir; he was still in the U.K.,” said Hunter, who is based in Oakland, California. “When he came to camp, I was quite surprised at how he’d grown. He filled out. I had a conditioning coach with him over there eight weeks before he came. I didn’t know who he’d fight; I just wanted to give him a head start.

“When he came in at 166, 167, with his abs already quite pronounced and things like that, I remember saying to myself: ‘He’d have a problem getting down to 147.’ ÔǪ I don’t know if he’ll ever see 47 again. He’ll have to scale down to 55, not go up. If he’s at 60, 61 the next night, that’ll be a good weight gain. So I don’t think weight will be that much of a factor.”

SUBSCRIBE

You can subscribe to the print and digital editions of THE RING Magazine by clicking the banner or here. On the cover this month: Tyson Fury heads up the 87th Annual RING Awards as Fighter of the Year. You can also order the current issue, which is on newsstands, or back issues on our subscribe page.