History holds key to Khan's gold goal

When Amir Khan steps into the ring later today to face Cuba’s Mario Kindelan over four two-minute rounds for the Olympic lightweight gold medal, he will have the weight of a nation’s expectations not to mention the burden of history heaped upon his young shoulders.

No boxer in British Olympic history has caught the public’s imagination quite like the 17-year-old Lancastrian. Even respected Boxing News weekly magazine has joined the chorus of "let’s hear it for the boy", with front-page headlines on Khan which have read "Impossible Dream", "Khan’s off to a flier" and now this week’s version, "Talk of the Nation".

That he is Britain’s only boxer in Athens and the fact that he can better Muhammad Ali in Rome in 1960 and become the youngest boxing gold medallist since Floyd Patterson - he was younger by a month when he won gold in 1956 - has only served to build the hype surrounding Khan.

For once in boxing, it is truly deserved. Khan really is a sensation, the kind of exciting raw British talent you see only once in a generation, maybe even a lifetime. Occasionally naive and inexperienced, yes, but what fast hands, what fabulous natural reactions, and already what ring craft he possesses.

He can still take a lesson from the man he idolises, though. For when Cassius Marcellus Clay bounced into that Roman ring 44 years ago, he was not expected to win because he was up against a man reckoned by most experts to be the best amateur light-heavyweight in the world.

Even though he had already disposed of a tough Russian, Ali was not fancied to beat that formidable opponent, Poland’s Zbigniew Pietrzykowski.

Like Kindelan, the Pole was vastly experienced, having picked up the light-middleweight bronze medal in the 1956 games in Melbourne. He had already won three European championships and would go on to become 11-times champion of Poland and win the bronze medal at light heavyweight in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.

In Rome the Pole was 26, eight years older than Ali, and was renowned as a heavy puncher and a man who wore opponents down. He was favourite to silence the "Kentucky Klaxon" as the motormouth Ali was originally known. The world knows what happened next.

Ali showed no fear as he stepped into the ring, and from the opening bell gave a marvellous display of counter-punching followed by attacking bursts all conducted at lightning speed. In a famous description of the fight, Ali reduced Pietrzykowski to "a bloody pulp".

The five judges were unanimous in awarding Ali the gold medal, but will Khan earn the same accolade against the reigning Olympic champion Mario Kindelan, widely regarded as the best lightweight on the planet?

A lot will depend on the judges, and the scoring system rewards the show-off "one shot" artists like Kindelan, though he is anything but a flashy individual.

Born 29 years ago in Holgu, Cuba, Kindelan started boxing when he turned 14.

"My friends from the neighbourhood and I enrolled in the boxing academy," he said in a recent interview. "I liked it and stayed."

Having turned down many American offers to fight professionally, Kindelan now has a BSc in physical education and drives a car given to him by the Cuban National Sports Insti tute - the great Teofilo Stevenson was once offered a Rolls-Royce to turn professional, but declined on the grounds that Fidel Castro had just given him a second Lada.

"Scouts always approach and follow me," said Kindelan, "but I didn’t begin my career in boxing for the money. For me, public recognition is more important than all the millions in the world."

His young opponent takes a similarly disdainful attitude to the talk of the millions he will earn when he turns professional, but when all the ballyhoo has subsided and the bell goes, for amateur and professional alike, boxing is simply a fight between two contestants. The better man usually wins, and judged by his record, Kindelan would be hot favourite to beat Khan.

Kindelan, three times the world amateur champion, has indeed been the bookmakers’ favourite for the lightweight gold since they started taking bets. They are not often wrong.

Now 33, Kindelan wants to go out on a high note as he will retire after the Games. He was not extended to beat Russia’s Murat Khrachev 20-10 in the semi-final held immediately after Khan’s devastating performance against Kazakhstan’s Serik Yeleuov.

Kindelan has strolled through the Olympics, as he has done in every major tournament since the late 1990s. A full-time boxer in Castro’s Communist regime, Kindelan has already beaten Khan, outclassing the young Briton in the Olympic Test Event in the same Peristeri Olympic Boxing Hall where they will meet today.

Back in May, Kindelan won easily, amassing a score of 33 to 13, the contest being stopped because he had been deemed to outclass his opponent. Khan and his coaching team went back to the drawing board and his improvement has been staggering.

In the Olympics proper, Khan stopped his first-round opponent Marios Kaperonis of Greece before dismantling Dimitar Stilianov, the Bulgarian European champion, in four one-sided rounds.

In the quarter-finals he all but knocked out the South Korean Baik Jong Sub in the first round to guarantee a podium finish, the youngest boxer to win a medal since Patterson.

Khan, who is 5ft 9in tall and weighs 9st 4lb, is a very smart kid. He gained nine GCSEs before moving to Bolton Community College where he is studying for a sports diploma. He also learns from his mistakes and can take a telling, which is why he may well now pip Kindelan.

Against Yeleuov, Khan was put under pressure in the first round. He attempted a make fast start but got caught by several punches as he pressed home his attack. This was the hot headedness of youth, but in the interval after the first round, coach Terry Edwards could be heard correcting Khan’s approach.

From then on he stayed at long range and picked off Yeleuov with speedy jabs and straight rights. It was impressive stuff and secured a 40-26 victory for Khan.

He must now learn that lesson - go after Kindelan and the Cuban will counter punch him to a halt. Stay at long range and he will have every chance of scoring with those amazing long bombs that he can throw.

And Kindelan has one obvious weakness - alone of the Cubans he holds his guard very low, relying on his reactions to slip the punches. He is now 33, so maybe the speed has gone, but it is the way he fights and Khan could well take note of these words.

"You have to take risks in the ring," he said. "I work the Europeans with the uppercut and those from the Americas with jabs and hooks, but I’ve never taken any blows from having a low guard."

Avoid the uppercut, then, and Khan could win. Even if he fails in his task, Khan has single-handedly saved the bacon of British amateur boxing.

If he wins gold, he may even inspire a new generation of young Britons to find their local gym. But he is facing a formidable task against the Cuban. Make no mistake, Kindelan is not just a good fighter - he is a truly great one. It is veteran versus tyro, wily old fox against bristling young cub, a man who has done it all against a boy who threatens to do it all.

It really is not overstating the case to say that Khan faces a task so difficult it could well be compared to that which faced the teenaged Ali in Rome all those years ago. All Britain will hope that, as in that bout, it is the younger fighter who comes out with gold.