Amir Khan: the new Audley Harrison?

It was perhaps fitting that Amir Khan and Audley Harrison were boxing on the same card on Saturday night.
On the one hand you had a former hero from the Olympic Games with a distinguished amateur record who's been over-hyped, over-paid and over-rated since turning professional; and on the other hand you had Audley Harrison.
That may sound harsh - it probably is - but we have a habit of talking up our boxers.
Unlike Harrison, Khan has time to prove us wrong but one fears his failing was not getting outclassed by a decent opponent but that he has never possessed the true credentials to compete in the toughest and most unforgiving of sports.
We are told that he will be return stronger than ever - great boxers do, apparently - which is a theory as deeply flawed as it is unprovable.
Would Joe Calzaghe, Rocky Marciano or Floyd Mayweather Jnr have been better had they lost? No, of course not. Would we point to blemishes on their records as proof of their fallibility? Probably.
That is not to say that great boxers have not managed successful and admirable comebacks - but history dictates that only a few of those beaten remain judged by their achievements ahead of their failures: Lennox Lewis, Muhammad Ali and the Sugar Rays - Robinson and Leonard - are among the elite fortunate enough.
Even some of the finest boxers to grace the planet are remembered for their defeats.
Ricky Hatton's salient beating at the hands of Mayweather springs to mind as readily as his win against Kostya Tszyu, while the defining image of Roberto Duran - who famously quit against Sugar Ray Leonard - overshadows his victory against the same man, an otherwise fine career and a subsequent world-title winning comeback.
One fears it will be similarly unflattering images of Khan that remain fresh in our minds, regardless of what he goes on to achieve
Sadly, that might not be much given the worrying manner in which his so-called world-class capabilities have been brutally exposed since his arrival in the professional game.
Successful comebacks are one thing; a loss of invincibility for boxers is altogether another (has anyone seen 'Prince' Naheem Hamed since his humbling defeat to Marco Antonio Barrera?) and that is what Khan lost in some style in Manchester.
Can we ever say George Foreman was as good after his defeat to Muhammad Ali? Was Sonny Liston?
What about Bernard Hopkins, was he the same figher after back-to-back losses to Jermain Taylor?
The truly blessed can replace such memories by achieving magnificence elsewhere.
Ali's legacy has been built around his managing that more than once, most notably by avenging defeats to Joe Frazier and Ken Norton.
But what is noticeable about the great comebacks is that their architects had beaten the best in the world before and after they were forced to come back.
Khan cannot say the same: Prescott, 25, was not even ranked in the world's top ten before Saturday night and while the British fighter may be able to recover from this devastating blow, it's hugely doubtful he's good enough to erase this memory in the same way the truly great exponents of his art have done.
Khan might do okay, but okay in boxing is nothing.
That crushing blow from Prescott did more than knock him out: it shattered his dreams.