Amir Khan has finally found the win column again. After losing his last two fights, the British boxer defeated the previously undefeated Carlos Molina on Saturday night.
As ESPN Boxing indicates, Molina's corner ended the fight after the 10th round:
Molina's corner stops the fight after Round 10. They have seen enough. A very strong performance from Khan who snapped his losing streak.
— ESPN Boxing (@ESPNBoxing) December 16, 2012
In boxing, a two-fight losing streak is the equivalent of a 10-game skid in most sports, so Khan desperately needed a win in this bout. He was able to rebound from a controversial loss to Lamont Peterson, and a devastating KO at the hands of Danny Garcia.
Peterson failed a drug test for the rematch, per ESPN, which of course brings about some doubt about how level the playing field was for their first matchup. Khan was dominating the Garcia bout before he was caught with a vicious left hook that sent him reeling.
There would be no such setbacks this time, though. Khan dominated nearly every second of all 10 rounds. Molina's corner made the wise decision not to send their man out for the 11th.
The speed and overall skill advantage was too much for Molina to overcome.
Khan improved to 27-3 and Molina's record dropped to 17-1. Khan enjoyed a four-inch height advantage over Molina, and a sizable edge in experience.
Though Molina is one year older than Khan, this was only his 19th professional fight. Khan reached the 30-fight plateau with this outing. He may need another bout to firmly place himself back in the conversation with the world's best 140 and 147-pounders, but he's back on the right track.
The victory had to be extra sweet for Khan as Molina had brought in Danny Garcia's father, Angel Garcia to train him. Khan and the elder Garcia are not the best of friends. Khan admitted the antagonistic elder Garcia got under his skin before his loss to his son.
He had made racist comments during the pre-fight press conference and build-up, per the Guardian and Khan told the Daily Mail, it made him press for the KO too quickly.
Khan now seeks to clean-up the 140-pound scene before possibly moving up to welterweight. That is likely to include a rematch with Garcia somewhere down the line.
If and when that happens, we'll see if Khan can best Angel Garcia's No. 1 fighter the second time around.
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