Khan: stunning KO defeat

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Amir Khan was sensationally knocked out inside a minute in Manchester on Saturday night.

The British boxing hero was humbled in just 54 seconds by hard-hitting Breidis Prescott, leaving his unbeaten record in tatters - and his world-title credentials in severe doubt.

Khan was in trouble after just 16 seconds. First Prescott pierced his guard with a sharp jab, then as Khan responded a lightning left hook landed square on the chin.

As his knees buckled a quick right did further damage and as he rocked back the other way, another vicious left lifted him off his feet and landed him flat on his back.

Slumped in a corner, Khan somehow struggled to his feet.

Yet like that undefeated record, his legs were no longer his and many a referee would have called a halt there and then.

But with a packed and pumped-up crowd watching and the immediate hopes of British boxing on the line, Terry O'Connor gave the boy from Bolton another chance.

It was merely delaying the inevitable. Still staggering, Khan walked straight into another left, a looping right over the top and finally, a short sharp hook to the chin.

There was no coming back from that and it was all the hero of Athens could do to lift his head as he lay in the corner.

His shorts were still sparkling under the piercing ring lights, but his suspect chin had cast a huge shadow over the MEN Arena. And indeed British boxing.

Answers

With Ricky Hatton and Joe Calzaghe coming to the end of their careers, Khan was carrying the hopes of a nation - just as he had done at the Olympics four years ago.

And for 18 fights it had, bar the odd knockdown, gone according to plan. But sooner or later in life, you have to take a risk.

Frank Warren did that for his man by inviting the unknown Prescott to join the Manchester party all the way from the mean streets of Colombia.

There were always question marks against Khan's chin following those flash knockdowns by Willie Limond and Michael Gomez and the lean and languid 25-year-old from Barrinquilla was expected to provide some answers.

He was not smaller, he was not a blown up featherweight and he was not someone we - or Khan's team - had seen a lot of. And he was not a fighter on the way down.

Prescott came with a 19-0 record and 17 KO's. He will leave with 20 and 18 and the biggest scalp in Britain. And stunningly, he did it in fewer punches than he's had fights, without even breaking sweat.

Few expected Prescott to be the latest to roll over in front of the Khan bandwagon, but fewer still expected him to derail it so dramatically. He had thrown - not even landed - just 14 punches before he turned British boxing on its head.

Sprawling

One of those was a jab down the throat which checked Khan's first advance. The 15th, a left hook to the chin did the initial damage and the 16th, a clubbing straight right restored his equilibrium, before another left sent him sprawling.

He staggered to his feet to merely prolong the agony and as the MEN Arena held its breath in disbelief, Prescott waded in again with three more right on the money.

Suddenly, British boxing's brightest star had been not only dimmed, but utterly destroyed.

A new coach was supposed to mean a better defence, not a 54-second wipeout that will make more headlines here than in America, but will still send ripples around world.

For his part, Prescott can bang. Seriously. Whether the speed of his win will work against him remains to be seen.

Whoever he gets next will need a granite chin and at least some defensive noise, although where he finds his next for after such a blistering display, one can only guess.

But we do know where Amir Khan is heading. Straight back to the drawing board.