By Edward Chaykovsky

Amir Khan (31-4, 19KOs) shook his head after learning that he was behind on the scorecards in last Saturday's fight against WBC middleweight champion Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez (47-1-1, 33KOs).

Most ringside observers had Khan ahead by 3 rounds to 2, and some even had it 4 rounds to 1 - but two of the official judges had Canelo ahead in the contest. Khan was up on one card 48-47, while the two other judges had him down 49-46 and 48-47.

Khan moved up by eight pounds to a catch-weight of 155-pounds to challenge Canelo for his title at the brand new T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

After getting off very well and boxing on his toes for the first five rounds, Canelo landed a huge right hand that knocked Khan unconscious in the sixth.

Khan was confident that he was ahead on the cards at the time of the stoppage. He realizes that he probably would have needed a knockout of his own to win that night. The British superstar is actually relieved that he didn't have to go through the disappointment of boxing the entire twelve round distance only to lose a potential controversial decision.

"Up until the sixth round everything was going my way. I was leading the fight. But I was hitting him and he wasn't moving - I didn't expect him to be that big. And if you make a little mistake against someone like Canelo, he'll make you pay. I've never been hit by a guy that hard before. That shot would have put down a lot of people," Khan said.

"In a way I'm glad I got knocked out rather than went 12 rounds, took a lot of punishment and got cheated at the end of it," said Khan. "I'm safe and healthy and can fight another day."