Amir Khan, pictured right, defeated Chris Algieri this past Saturday in New York (Photo: Naoki Fukuda)

By Chris Robinson

This past Saturday night, inside of the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, Amir Khan overcame a very courageous Chris Algieri over 12 rounds.

Algieri was coming off of a lopsided unanimous decision defeat to Manny Pacquiao in November and he was a heavy underdog. Instead, the sharp-witted New Yorker found a way to prove the odds wrong by putting up a very spirited effort and even catching Khan with some big shots along the way.

Scores of 117-111 twice and 115-113 were read in Khan’s favor and in the wake of a matchup that turned out to be far tougher than expected, people are now far less enthused about seeing the British star in the ring with Floyd Mayweather later this year.

Now 31-3 as a pro with 19 knockouts, Khan actually believes his performance was underwhelming largely due to the fact he over-trained up in camp in Northern California.

“There was something there that wasn’t right,” Khan stated recently. “I did feel flat. There were a few things I did differently in the last two weeks [of camp] that I had not really done before and I was not used to it. It was a few technique things I was doing differently.

“Looking back at it now, I think I made the weight too early,” Khan added. “A lot of people were saying my physique was not as it was before. I did not feel the same explosiveness as before; the speed or the power. I have not spoken to Virgil about it yet, but I will. Imagine if I had trained that way for someone like Floyd.”

Chris Robinson can be reached at CRobinson@hustleboss.com