Author: mhdkh100

My name is Mohammad Makhlouf . In this blog, I will share my thoughts on the latest action and dramatic news unfolding in the boxing world both from inside the boxing ring and from outside of it

Idioms

 

 

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The best of both worlds All the benefits possible from two perspectives كل المزايا الممكنة من وجهتي نظر محتملتين The new cell phone has the best of both worlds because it is very nice looking and packed full of features. الهاتف الخليوي الجديد يجمع الأفضل من عالمين فهو يبدو جميلاً جداً وفي نفس الوقت مليء بالمزايا
Speak or talk of the devil You say it when someone shows up just when he or she is mentioned اذكر الشيطان يحضر أو اذكر الديب (عامية) Here comes John. Speak of the devil! ها قد حضر جون. اذكر الشيطان يحضر.
See eye to eye Agree on something or see things similary يتفق حول شي ما. أو يرى الأمر بنفس الطريقة Unfortunately, we do not see eye to eye this issue anymore. لسوء الحظ لم نعد نتفق حول هذه القضية.
Toss and turn move about uncomfortably in bed while trying to sleep possibly because one is too tired to just fall asleep or is sick يتحرك بشكل يخلو من الراحة في السرير عند محاولة النوم, من الممكن لكون الشخص متعباً لدرجة يصعب معها الاستغراق في النوم أو بسبب المرض (يتقلب ويدور) I often toss and turn in bed before I fall asleep because my matrice is just not quite comfortable and because I am often just full of aches and pains after a long day of work. غالباً ما أتقلب وأدور في السرير قبل استغراقي في النوم لأن فراشي ليس مريحاً تماماً ولأنني غالباً ما أكون مليأً بالأوجاع والآلام بعد يوم طويل من العمل.
Trials and tribulations challenges and hardships التحديات والصعوبات (الاختبارات والمحن) Having to deal with the loss of a child is, to me, the greatest of all trials and tribulations that life may throw in our way. الاضطرار للتعامل مع فقد طفل هو بالنسبة لي من أكبر الاختبارات والمحن التي يمكن للحياة أن تلقيها في طريقنا
Ups and downs the fluctuations from good times to bad times التأرجحات بين الأوقات الجيدة والأوقات السيئة (على الحلوة والمرة) John stayed with the company through its ups and downs because of his great sense of loyalty to his employer. بقي جون في الشركة في أوقاتها الجيدة والسيئة (في كل الظروف) بسبب شعوره الكبير بالولاء لموظفه.
Wear and tear damage to something resulting from its use الضرر الذي يصيب شيأً ما نتيجة استخدامه (حرفياً: الاهتراء والتمزق) We must set aside an amount of money in our budget to cover any expenditures for fixing any wear and tear of the equipment. يجب أن نخصص مبلغاً من المال في الموازنة لتغطية أية نفقات لإصلاح الضرر الناتج عن استخدام المعدات
Accidentally on purpose done intentionally but while pretending it was accidental عُمل بشكل مقصود مع التظاهر بأنه كان حادثاً عرضياً Sarah accidentally on purpose dropped her books to attract John’s attention قامت سارة بالتظاهر بإسقاط كتبها عرضاً لتجذب انتباه جون
Add fuel to the flames make a bad situation worse. يزيد الموقف سوءاً (يصب الزيت على النار) (يضيف الوقود إلى ألسنة اللهب) John’s relationship with his father was already in bad shape because he had dropped out of school, then he decided to add fuel to the flames by quitting the job his father had worked hard to help him find. كانت علاقة جون مع والده في وضع سيء لأنه كان قد ترك الجامعة ثم قرر أن يصب الزيت على النار بتركه العمل الذي كان والده قد عمل جاهداً لكي يساعده على إيجاده.
Add insult to injury make a situation worse, as when embarrassment is caused in addition to damage. يزيد الطين بلة كما يحدث مثلا عند التسبب بالإحراج بالإضافة إلى الضرر John wrecked his own new car and, to add insult to injury, his insurance company did not pay any compensation because it was going out of business. حطم جون سياراته الجديدة ومما زاد الطين بلة أن شركة التأمين لم تتدفع له أية تعويضات لأنها كانت في طور التصفية.
be all ears listening carefully to what someone has to say منصت بشكل متنبه لما يقوله شخص ما. مصغ بشكل كامل I was all ears while John described his predicament because I wanted to give him the best advice possible for his situation. كنت مصغياً بشكل تام بينما كان جون يصف معضلته لأنني أردت إعطائها أفضل نصيحة ممكنة لوضعه.
Answer the call of nature/ answer nature’s call Go the bathroom to urinate or defecate يذهب إلى المرحاض للتبول أو التغوط (يستجيب لنداء الطبيعة) There’s nothing worse than having to answer the call of nature when you are in an important business meeting. لا يوجد أسوأ من أن تكون بحاجة إلى الذهاب إلى المرحاض وأنت في اجتماع أعمال مهم.
Backseat driver a person who gives unwanted driving advice or any person who gives unwanted advice. (this person is acting as if he was the driver even though he/she is not sitting in the driver’s seat but rather in a backseat perhaps) شخص يعطي نصائح قيادة غير مرغوب بها عندما يكون مع سائق آخر أو أي شخص يعطي نصائح غير مرغوب بها. (هذا الشخص يتصرف وكأنه السائق رغم أنه لا يجلس في كرسي السائق وإنما ربما في كرسي خلفي في السيارة) John can’t help being a backseat driver, which is ironic because he is a terrible driver himself. لا يستطيع جون منع نفسه من إعطاءك نصائح قيادة غير رغوب بها عندما يكون معك في السيارة وهذا يدعو للسخرية لأنه هو نفسه سائق سيء جداً.
Balancing act action you take to make sure you have balance between conflicting requirements فعل تتخذه لضمان وجود توازن بين متطلبات متعارضة She had to perform/do a great balancing act to raise her four kids all by herself while working to meet all their financial needs. توجب عليها أن تحقق توازن كبير لتستطيع أن تربي أولادها الأربعة لوحدها وفي نفس الوقت أن تعمل لتحقق جميع احتياجاتهم المالية
bare your heart/soul divulge or reveal what is in one’s heart or soul. Tell a secret or hidden facts/feelings/emotions. يكشف عما في قلبه أو روحه. يكشف سراً أو حقائق أو مشاعر أو عواطف خفية. After she bore her heart to him, he showed little sympathy despite the justifiable anguish she expressed. بعد أن كشفت له عن ما في قلبها, أظهر فقط القليل من التعاطف رغم العذاب المبرر الذي عبرت عنه.
Bark up the wrong tree doing the wrong thing and thinking the wrong way (When dogs were used for hunting, they were sometimes tricked by a prey into thinking that it was hiding in a certain tree and thus the dog would bark up that tree while the animal had actually jumped away from it) يقوم بالشيء الخطأ أو يفكر بالطريقة الخطأ. (عندما كانت الكلاب تستخدم في الصيد, كانت أحياناً تخدع من قبل فريسة بحيث تعتقد أن الفريسة تختبأ في شجرة ما ولذلك كان الكلب يقوم بالعواء باتجاه أعلى هذه الشجرة بينما يكون الحيوان قد قفز بعيداً عنها) If you think you can get Sarah to accept you marriage proposal by showering her with gifts, you are barking up the wrong tree. إذا كنت تعتقد أنه يمكنك أن تجعل سارة تقبل بعرضك للزواج منها بإغراقها بالهدايا, فأنت تقوم بشيء خاطئ تماماً.
Beat a (hasty) retreat run away to avoid a bad situation يهرب, أو ينسحب بسرعة John beat a hasty retreat when he realized everyone was going to ask him about his now discovered affair. انسحب جون بسرعة عندما أدرك أن الجميع كانوا سيأسلونه عن علاقتة الغرامية التي كان قد تم اكتشافها
Be one’s best bet be the best hope one has for success أن يكون شيء ما أفضل أمل ممكن لشخص لتحقيق هدف John is our best bet right now because he is the only one who can really lend us the money we need to save the company. جون هو أفضل أمل لنا حالياً لأنه الشخص الوحيد الذي فعلاً يمكنه إقراضنا المال الذي نحتاجه لإنقاذ الشركة
Bide your time take your time until the right opportunity comes. (Bide: means wait in a place) يأخذ وقته حتى تأتي الفرصة المناسبة I will bide my time before I propose to her. I want to make sure she will say yes. سأنتظر الفرصة المناسبة قبل عرض الزواج عليها. أريد أن أضمن أنها ستوافق.
go on a binge drink too much alcohol in a short period of time. Or do another activity exessively, such as eating too much (to binge = to do something excessively يشرب الكحول بكميات كبيرة خلاف فترة قصيرة أو يقوم بنشاط آخر بشكل مفرط كالأكل المفرط You shouldn’t drive after going on a binge يجب أن لا تقود السيارة بعد شرب الكحول بشكل مفرط
Bite the hand that feeds you be unfaithful to someone who has helped you. To act in an ungrateful way يعض اليد التي أطعمته. أن لا يكون مخلصاً لشخص ساعده. التصرف بشكل لا يعكس الامتنان If you give this information about your company to a potential competitor, you will be clearly biting the hand the feeds you. إذا أعطيت هذه المعلومات عن شركتك لمنافس محتمل, ستكون تعض اليد التي تتطعمك
Blot one’s copybook harm or hurt one’s own reputation with some action يضر بسمعته الشخصية (يلطخ دفتره). يلطخ صفحته أو صورته(بالعربية) John’s constant reneging on his promises is sure blotting his copy book. اخلاف جون بوعوده بشكل متكرر حتماً يسيء إلى سمعته.
On the bottle drunk مخمور A: John will win the race.
B: Are on on the bottle? He always comes last.		 A: جون سيفوز بالسباق
B: هل أنت مخمور. هو دائماً يحل أخيراً
Break every rule in the book Behave in a completely unacceptable or inappropriate way يخرق كل قواعد السلوك John broke every rule in the book during the wedding cereomony. He didn’t even come properly dressed. جون خرق كل قواعد السلوك خلال حفل الزفاف. حتى أنه من يأتي مرتدياً ملابس ملائمة
Breathe down somebody’s neck look too closely at or observing what one is doing and in an annoying manner مراقبة ما يقوم به شخص ما بشكل دقيق فوق الحاجة وبشكل يزعج هذا الشخص My boss was breathing down my neck all day long to see if I was working on the tasks he gave me, which actually annoyed me greatly and slowed me down. كان رئيسي في العمل يراقبني بشكل لصيق طوال النهار ليرى فيما إذا كنت أعمل على المهام التي أعطانيها, مما أزعجني بشكل كبير جداً وأبطأني في الواقع
Build bridges do things that make the relationship with one or more people or among those people stronger يبني جسوراً من الأخرين Promoting trade relations between two countries can be a great way to build bridges between them. تعزيز العلاقات التجارية بين بلدين يمكن أن يكون طريقة عظيمة لبناء الجسور بينهما
Burn your bridges take steps that make it impossible to turn back and fix the relationship with someone يتخذ خطوات تجعل من المستحيل التراجع أو إصلاح العلاقة مع شخص ما. (يحرق جسوره) By telling her he never really loved her, he burned all remaining bridges with her. بقوله لها أنه لم يحبها حقيقة قط, أحرق كل الجسور المتبقية معها.
Burn the candle at both ends work too hard so as to burn out and become really exhausted, especially by starting work early in the morning and continuing th work late at night. يعمل بشكل مرهق جداً ولاسيما ببدأ العمل في الصباح الباكر والاستمرار في العمل لوقت متأخر من الليل. (يحرق الشمعة من طرفيها) You can’t burn the candle at both ends but working two full shifts for long. لا تستطيع حرق الشمعة من طرفيها بالعمل ورديتين كاملتين لفترة طويلة.
Bury the hatchet end any disagreement and mend relationships. (Native Americans are said to perform a symbolic burial of hatchests when they reached a peace agreement) ينهي الخلافات ويصلح العلاقات (يقال أن سكان أمريكا الأصليين كانوا يقومون بطقس دفن الفؤوس عند التوصل إلى اتفاق سلام) After so many years of conflict over their inheritance money, John and his brother have finally decided to come to a settlement and bury the hatchet بعد سنوات طويلة من الصراع حول أموالهم الموروثة, قرر جون وأخوه أخيراً أن يتوصلا إلى تسوية وأن يصلحا ذات بينهما (يدفنا الفأس)
Clip someone’s wings reduce someone’s abilities, privileges or authority يقلل من قدرات أو امتيازات أو سلطات شخص ما (يقلم أجنحته) The new general manager started her work by clipping the wings of the majority of all managers appointed by her predecessor and laid off the rest of them. بدأت المديرة العامة الجديدة عملها بتقليم أجنحة أغلب المدراء الذين عينهم سلفها وسرحت الباقين منهم.
(a) slap on the wrist Easy punishment ضربة خفيفة على المعصم – تعبير عن عقوبة صغيرة مقارنة بالذنب أو الخطأ الكبير I don’t believe he just got a slap on the wrist for all that he has done. لا أصدق أنه حصل على ضربة أو لطمة على المعصم مقابل كل ما فعله
eagle eye close watch مراقبة لصيقة (عين النسر) John always keeps an eagle eye on his kids if he has to look after them by himself because he knows how much trouble they can cause if left to their own devices يراقب جون أطفاله مراقبة لصيقة إذا اضطر للاعتناء بهم لوحده لأنه يعرف كم من المشاكل يمكن أن تتسببوا بها إذا تركوا على حريتهم.
has eyes in the back of one’s head seems to be able to see what’s happening behind one يبدو وكأنه قادرة على الرؤية خلفه My mother must have eyes in the back of her head. She can always tell what I am doing without even looking at me. لا بد أن لأمي عينان في موخرة رأسها. هي دا:ئماً تستطيع أن تعلم ما أفعله دون حتى النظر إلي
before/in front of/under one’s (very) eyes right in front of one أمام الشخص مباشرة (أمام عيني الشخص) John started drinking before her very eyes even though he had promised her to quit drinking forever. بدأ جون بالشرب أمام عينيها رغم أنه كان قد وعدها بأن يقلع عن الشرب للأبد
cry one’s eyes out cry a a lot يبكي كثيراً Sarah cried her eyes out when she lost the ring that John gave her as a gift. بكت سارة كثيراً عندما فقدت الخاتم الذي أعطاه إياه جون كهدية
eyes like a hawk having very sharp vision and power of observation أن يكون للشخص قوة نظر حادة جداً وقدرة على الملاحظة The teacher has eyes like a hawk. You can never space out for a second without him noticing and directing you to pay attention to his words. لدى المدرس قوة نظر كالصقر. لا يمكنك أبداً أن تسرح بالتفكير للحظة بدون أن يلاحظ ذلك ويوجهك للانتباه لكلامه.
keep one’s eyes peeled be very careful and watch what’s happening around one يكون حذراً جداً ويراقب ما يجري حوله (أبق عينيك مقشرتين) On our camping trip, we had to keep our eyes peeled for dangerous wild animals all the time. أثناء رحلة التخييم, توجب علينا أن نبقي أعيننا مفتوحة لأية حيوانات برية طوال الوقت
with your eyes (wide) open with full understanding of the issues and challenges one might face بفهم كامل للقضايا والتحديات التي قد يواجها الشخص John went into his marriage with Sarah with his eyes open since she had already explained to him how hard to deal with her parents are. تزوج جون من سارة بوعي كامل للعواقب لأنها كانت قد شرحت له مسبقاً كم من الصعب التعامل مع والديها.
eyes out on stalks having one’s eyes wide open because of surprise, shock or sexual attraction. (Some creatures, such as snails, have small stalks the protrude from their heads and have eyes at these stalks’ ends) أن تكون العينان مفتوحتان باتساع (جاحظتان) بسبب المفاجأة أو الصدمة أو الانجذاب جنسياً. (بعض المخلوقات كالحلزونات لديها سيقان صغيرة أو سويقات ناتئة من رأسها ,ولهذه السيقان أعين في نهاياتها) John’s eyes are out on stalks whenever he sees Sarah. He just can’t get himself to talk to her. عينا جون تحجظا من الانجذاب كلما شاهد سارة. ولكنه لازال لا يستطيع أن يتحدث معها.
get your act together act in a more organized and focused way, especially when trying to achieve a goal يتصرف بشكل أكثر تنظيماً وتركيزاً, ولاسيما عند محاولة تحقيق هدف ما (يرتب أموره). You can actually get into the school’s basketball team if you get your act together and stick to the training schedule. يمكنك بالفعل الانضمام إلى فريق المدرسة لكرة السلة إذا رتبتك أمورك والتزمت بجدول التمرين.

 

A Tribute to the Greatest Boxer Ever: Muhammad Ali

Muhammad Ali is arguably the greatest fighter to ever step inside the boxing ring. He was also a great fighter outside the ring.

Born Juanuary 17, 1942, in Louisville, Kentucky, Muhammad’s given name was Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. Ali started boxing at the age 12 and started making achievements from a young age, builing a great career that lasted for a couple of decades with several still unbroken records.

This man was one of a kind. Those who watch his matches will be amazed at how fearless this champion was. He hardly put up his arms and hands to block punches from his opponents, who never put their arms down in fear of a devastating blow from this great champion. Instead of blocking punches, he kept moving around the ring non-stop even if the fight took all fifteen rounds to finish. This made him a constantly moving target that was very hard to reach.

In addition, he would snap back his upper body with amazing speed to avoid the fastest punches. I have never seen anybody move so fast and make the opponent seem so slow, except maybe in one of The Matrix’s fight scenes in which Neo, “The One”, evades punches from those virtual villains and hits them back so fast that they look like they are in slow motion.

Ali would also have time to taunt his strongest opponents by firing mocking words at them during the fight. He would also stretch out his arm and tap his opponent on the top of his fist in a snappy move to show him how faster and fearless the champion was. Here is a great boxer who used not only sheer strength but also character to overpower and psyche out his opponents.

For a moment in his career, Muhammad Ali seemed to have met his match in Joe Frazier. This was another great fighter with mazing strength, speed and fearlessness, and with eyes set on the heavy weight championship title. The saga that ensued was epic. Three of the greatest boxing matches in history followed. In the first, the undefeated Joe Frazier knocked Ali down in the 11th round, and although Ali was back up within three seconds, he lost by a unanimous vote. The champion retaliated with two wins to reestablish himself as the greatest boxer ever.

Ali’s fights outside the ring were as powerful and inspiring as those in the ring. He had to stand up for what he believed in during the Vietnam war and Civil Rights Movement in the sixties and did not shy away despite the heavy price he had to pay, with suspension from boxing for about three years before he could practice his passion again.

Ali’s last fight was with Parkinson’s disease. This one lasted for too long but the champion held up his grounds to the final round. The disease took a heavy toll on his health but did not stop him from helping and inspiring others. He lived the last years of his life as a great philanthropist. His memory will never die.

Indispensable Advice for Aspiring Boxers

Boxing is one of the toughest sports out there. Aspiring boxing “rookies” have their jobs cut out for them. In this blog, I would like to give tips that I have gathered from my own personal experience as a boxer to help smooth such boxers into a great boxing career.

It all starts by choosing the right club and the right coach. I cannot overemphasize how important it is to get this right. You should start by sampling different clubs and different coaches and asking others about their opinions and their ideas of the cons and pros of these coaches and clubs. But most certainly, you need to try things yourself. Do not be hasty in committing to a club or to a coach. It is a big decision to make and you should take your time with it and base it on knowledge and experience.

Next comes your commitment to the sport. If you do not see yourself dedicating yourself to such a sport and taking a big risk with it, then you should not get too serious about it. This sport is a way of life and requires full dedication. It is certainly demanding and requires extremely rigorous training schedules and diet. On the other hand, it is important to remember that it can be a very rewarding sport both financially and in terms of fame. You need to carefully weigh all the cons and pros of this sport and consider any other career options that you could possibly pursue. Only then should you decide to pursue this sport professionally.

To help you enjoy this sport and keep motivated, you need to make sure you fight with boxers at your own level. This can make a big difference. In “old school” training, beginning boxers were thrown in the ring with much more stronger boxers as a kind of initiation rite, but that can take a lot fun from the sport and can be extremely demotivating. More responsible coaching involves matching up the boxers with generally equally powerful boxers and increasing the level of difficulty gradually. This ensures a smoother and more definite transition into higher levels. You can also gradually build your confidence level and advance consistently. Moreover, you do not get unnecessarily hurt and you keep a higher level of self-esteem. Fighting with more powerful boxers should only be done occasionally to reestablish a benchmark of your progress and get a reality check, but it should not be the norm.

As for the fighting itself, a very important piece of advice that is hard to follow in the heat of the fight is to keep your eyes focused at your opponent’s upper chest. This will allow you to see the punches coming and know where you opponent is at all times. If you focus on the fists of your opponent, you will lose sight of the bigger picture and you will just end up counting punches rather than defending against them and doing your own hitting.

Another important piece of advice is to protect against the jab. Such a strike may not be one that causes a lot of trouble by itself, but it is used as the first line of attack by boxers and if it is successful, it will certainly be followed by other more hurtful strikes.

Finally, it can be great to use your imagination and creativity in this sport. One way in which you can show your imagination and touch is to come up with your own combinations of strikes. This is one of the most exciting areas of boxing. Even though the basic boxing moves and strikes are somewhat limited, the number of combinations possible are unlimited. Fooling you opponent with some unexpected or feigned moves followed by a clinching strike out of nowhere can be a sure way to build a great reputation and distinguish yourself from others.

Best of luck.

On the way to the Championship Game

This had been years in the making. As I walked to the ring of the semifinal fight in the Syrian National Championship back in 2014, everything I had gone through to get here flashed in my head. This was a great moment. I knew this fight would be a memorable one. I somehow knew I would win, because if I did not, nothing I had gone through would have made sense to me. Even though I still had the Championship fight to look forward to, I had always felt like an underdog, and I did not feel I was destined to be the champion yet, but I knew I was worthy of at least winning this fight. My opponent was certainly there to prove me wrong.

It all started very hard. The punches landed everywhere or at least it felt that way. I was actually fending off most of them but my opponent took it all out on me from the beginning. It was as if he had always waited for this moment and went after it in a vengeance. For a brief moment, I doubted myself. I wondered if I had been burned out with all the extra hours of training that I felt I had to put in as I prepared for this fight. “Did I sleep too little?” I wondered. “Did I run too hard?”

The second, third and fourth rounds were not much better, except I did manage to sneak in a couple of strikes, at least one of which seemed to rattle my opponent and draw a look of sobering concern on his face. That was my first glimmer of hope at that night that I would eventually be able to prove my intuition that this fight was mine to win.

Things started to turn around in the fifth round. I had taken so much punishment, but I tried extremely hard to keep this under wraps. I did not want my opponent to get any encouragement from any look that may show me to anticipate my own defeat in this fight. Sometimes I would just hide my face behind my fists not to just to protect it but to hide any expression of pain it may intimate to my opponent. At other times, I would put on a fake smile of confidence as if the powerful punch I had just received hardly bothered me.

All of that posturing and bravado seemed to finally pay off. My opponent, it turned out, did not have an infinite amount of patience, and nobody has an infinite amount of energy. He began to lose his cool and I began to take advantage of that. It was my turn to lay down the bare truth for him. It was my turn to shine. I wanted the fight to end quickly: I did not feel I would be able to continue on my feet longer than the sixths or sevenths round, and, so, I went on a striking spree. It turned out my opponent had been fatally weakened by his own overconfidence. It could not have been better for me.

The sixths round was the one I had been hoping for. I was sure I had never boxed and swung my arms as well as I did then. Strike after strike, I felt to get stronger rather than weaker. It was probably the thrill of self-assurance, rather than an actual increase in my physical strengths, that made me feel added energy. I was about to fulfill my destiny and fight in the final championship fight and that was all that mattered.

After knocking my opponent down and out, I felt at the top the world, but it was a brief moment, quickly shattered by the fear that I would be next to be knocked out.

Canelo vs. Khan 2016: Another Action and Drama Filled Fight

Another boxing drama unfolded on May 7th at T-Mobile Arena down at the Strip in Los Vegas with two world famous middle weight boxers taking it all out at each other.

The first boxer is Mexican Canelo Alvarez, born 1990, the holder of several Middle Weight championship titles

The second boxer is, British, Amir Khan, an older boxer, born 1986, who won an Olympic silver middle at 17 and a year later won the light-welterweight championship.

Khan was fighting Canelo for three of world middleweight championship titles on that Saturday night at a fully packed arena with highly anticipating spectators, numbering more than thirteen thousands, including many Canelo’s little nieces and nephews. So as you would imagine, for Canelo it was quite personal.

Amir Khan had to change his favored division and move up two tiers in weight to fight Canelo. Canelo was the bigger and stronger guy in the fight, while Amir Khan was coming in hoping that his fast punches, fast legs and front running skills would at least get him to the end of the 12 rounds intact and maybe even victorious.

The fight quickly started and it was quite promising for any fans who were rooting for the underdog Amir Khan. Khan wanted to impress on Canelo from the beginning his speed with his punches, managing to land a few fast and reasonably power punches in the first two rounds. The unofficial score card of one of the judges confirmed his lead in these two rounds.

Yet even in these two early rounds, in which Khan would be expected to perform better given still intact speed and body, Khan had to evade some really powerful swings by Canelo. Especially during the second round, Canelo tried harder to get back from Khan some of the glow that he had put out in his performance in the first round, with two head blows to Canelo that elicited tears from one of his little nieces attending the saga. In these early two rounds, Khan was moving around the ring fast while Canelo was cutting corners and maintaining a close to the center position in the ring, which to me indicated more anticipation and worry on the part of Khan than more energy on his part. And Canelo did finally manage to get a powerful jab, a left one in this case, to Khan’s face.

Then the third round started and things finally started to clearly turn in the direction that most boxing experts had predicted. Canelo’s power advantage started to show up clearly. With instructions from his coach to start to closer and faster and get some punches at Khan especially to his body if not to his face, Canelo took advantage of Khan’s dropping maneuvering speed and his eagerness to get in to get some punches on him to counter with some really powerful punches to the Khan’s body. Khan left side of his chest and bell started racking up punches and increasingly visible damage. The third round was Canelo’s and so were some other following rounds.

The fourth and fifth were pretty hard on Khan, who had to sustain very heavy blows to the body, especially to his left side, from Canelo. The power of the younger Canelo with more than a few extra pounds weight advange started to take a heavy toll on Khan. The first sign of wobbling in Khan’s legs came in the fifth round after a heavy jab from Canelo that landed square on Amir’s right cheek. Up until the fifth round Khan had landed only three body punches on Canelo while the latter had managed to land 16 such punches on Khan. The gap was just destined to widen even further. Over the next two rounds it, the fifth and sixth, power started to take a clear lead over speed.

The sixth round was the decisive one. At 147 pounds, Khan was being pummeled by the more powerful Canelo whose favorite was at his favorite weight of 155 pounds. Canelo was about to deliver the blow that had been anticipated by many, the knock-out of mercy. And that he did and he did it in style and a lot of cunning. Just when Khan was push his hands down to avoid what seemed to be going to be a 26th punishing blow to the left side of his chest, Canelo went for the unprotected chin instead. The full force of his right hand, landing sideways on Khan’s left cheek and chin, disconnected the neural link from Khan’s brain to his legs, landing Khan cold on the floor of the ring with a heavy smack of the back of his head to the floor. Having realized that he had won the game, Canelo felt obliged to go down on his knees near Khan to make sure he hadn’t caused permanent damage to his poor over-hopeful opponent. He had not but was sure a humiliating finish after what seemed to be a promising effort from Khan early one.

Overall it was a great fight to watch with a lot of lessons to learn.