Amir Khan vs Samuel Vargas 9/8/18 Odds, Preview and Prediction

Former 140-pound champion Amir Khan returns to face Samuel Vargas in a welterweight bout on September 8, 2018, at the Birmingham Arena in Birmingham in the United Kingdom.

Although it is not confirmed, the Khan vs Vargas bout could be the final WBA title eliminator with the winner of the contest moving on to fight recently crowned WBA (regular) welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao. That is of course if Pacquiao decides to fight again and defend the belt in the process.

The Comeback Continues

Amir Khan is the youngest Olympic boxing medalist from Britain. At age 17, he took silver in the 2004 Olympics. He was also one of the youngest world champions from England, winning the WBA 140 pound title at the age of 22. But as much success as he found at an early age, Khan has been inactive in recent years.

Khan fought only once in 2013, 2014 and 2016 while sitting out the entire 2017 trying to recover from a devastating knockout loss at the hands of Mexican superstar Saul “Canelo” Alvarez at the Cinco De Mayo weekend in 2016. In that fight, Khan moved up two weight classes to challenge Cinnamon for the WBC middleweight title.

This will only be Khan’s second fight since his loss to Canelo Alvarez. Last April, Khan returned from a two-year layoff to stop journeyman Phil LoGreco in just 39 seconds. He now continues his comeback trail against the 29-year-old Vargas. The 31-year-old orthodox Khan stands 5-8 and has a reach of 71 inches. His record stands at 32-4 with 29 knockouts.

Getting A Big Break

Samuel Vargas is the current WBA-NABA welterweight champion. The 29-year-old from Bogota, Colombia has a current record of 29-3-2 with 14 knockouts. Vargas stands 5-9 and has a reach of 72 inches while fighting at an orthodox stance. In his most recent fight, Vargas figured in a majority draw against Mauro Maximiliano Godoy last June 2nd.

Unlike Khan who has been inactive as of late, Vargas has been one of the busiest fighters in recent years as he’s fought at least three times since 2012. But while he has been busy, Vargas hasn’t fought the same caliber of opponents that Khan has regularly faced. In his two biggest fights, he was knocked out by Errol Spence in 2015 and was stopped by Danny Garcia the following year.

While he is a grizzled veteran, Vargas has fought mostly in Ontario, Canada which is his adoptive hometown. All of Vargas’ three career losses were in fights that took place outside of Canada. It will be interesting how he does in this fight against Khan, who will be fighting before a full house British crowd who will be cheering him on.

Who Wins?

Amir Khan has won seven out of his last 10 fights while Samuel Vargas has lost just once in his last 10 fights with one of those bouts ending in a draw. Both these fighters lost to Danny Garcia with Vargas losing by 7th round TKO in 2016 and Khan getting stopped in the 4th round by Swift in 2012.

Khan is always a risky pick because of his notoriously questionable chin. Three of the Brit’s four losses are by knockout and he seems to always look fragile because of that glass jaw. We’ve seen Khan go down multiple times in fights and we’ve seen him go down even in wins.

For sure, Samuel Vargas will always have a chance to win this fight, that is if he lands a couple of clean shots and goes for broke. After all, he’s knocked out practically half of the guys he’s beaten. But even then, Vargas doesn’t possess the same punching power as the last two opponents who knocked out Khan. More importantly, he doesn’t have hands as fast as Canelo, Danny Garcia and even Lamont Peterson. In fact, he may be a stationary target for the Briton in this fight.

It’s no secret that Amir Khan has one of the fastest hands in the business. He throws his jabs and short combinations very quickly. Like Vargas, Khan isn’t really a power puncher. But while he doesn’t have heavy hands, it’s his hand speed that produces knockouts and Vargas may be tailor-made for him.

The Colombian likes to stay there in the center and has a tendency to be flat-footed. With Vargas not possessing much pop in his punches, the key here will be Amir Khan’s speed and footwork. Take away that glass jaw and Khan is one of the better technical boxers. Against Vargas, the skill difference will be obvious. Khan is going to break down Vargas once he gets settled down. Vargas isn’t going to move much and Khan is going to catch him time and again. If Khan wants, he’s probably going to get a knockout after round six. At -250 at Betfair.com, Khan by KO/TKO or DQ is the tantalizing bet to make. But as we saw with Tyson Fury recently, Khan may just want to cruise here to get more ring mileage. We’re picking Amir Khan to beat Samuel Vargas on 9/8/18.