Amir Khan vs Marco Antonio Barrera Predictions

Former champion and future Hall of Famer, Marco Antonio Barrera, will be fighting young British silver medalist, Amir Khan, this Saturday at the MEN Arena in Manchester.

The old Mexican great is 35 and has been fighting professionally for 20 years now. Khan is young and quick, but his ability to take a shot on the button is in question. So who will prevail? Here are some predictions from The Boxing Bulletin team...

Very interesting fight that I don't have strong feelings on. Forced to make a prediction, I will have to side with Khan's speed and youth. He has an excellent jab and should be able to use it to bust Marco up. This is real early to come back from a fight ending cut. I'll say Khan gets off the deck at some point to stop MAB in eight on cuts. I wouldn't rule out a DQ. - Mark Lyons

Barrera looked sluggish and doughy in his last outing, against a 1-6 fighter named Freudis Rojas. He somehow let Rojas hang around for 8 minutes and suffered an intentional headbutt for his troubles. Barrera will no doubt be more prepared and in shape against Amir Khan, and Khan's chin is too fragile for me to be supremely confident in him outboxing the old pro. Khan has been down against lesser punchers than Barrera, as was the case with Willie Limond and Michael Gomez. But I do think Khan's size and speed will most likely be too much for Barrera to overcome at this point in his career. Khan should survive a few scary moments en route to winning 9 rounds out of 12. - Michael Nelson

I've been going back and forth on this one, but have finally made up my mind. Everyone's talking about Khan's fragile chin, and it's hard to get the picture of what happened to the youngster against Prescott out of my mind. But I think the fantastic skills that Khan does bring to the table will be enough to top the current version of Barrera. I also think Khan has enough sting in his punches to dissuade Barrera from getting too brave in there. I'm going to go with youth, speed and size here and pick Khan by a convincing decision. - Andrew Fruman

Barrera can only win by KO at this stage. There's no way he can keep up with Khan right now. The kid has a huge in athleticism and general fitness which means we might see him move more than ever out of respect for the old great. I have to think Khan's speed and size will be the decider, but he can be caught on the button if he gets too brave. Khan TKO 10 after a very good first 4 rounds. - Lee Payton