By William Mackay: WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan got some more bad news today when unbeaten cash cow Floyd Mayweather Jr. once again told him the straight truth about what Khan needs to do if he wants to fight him. Mayweather repeated his request that Khan has to fight his fighter Jessie Vargas (16-0, 9 KO’s) if he wants to get a fight with him next year.
Khan doesn’t appear eager to fight Vargas, however, saying that he’ll fight Vargas if he beats Marcos Maidana, a guy that Khan went life and death with in beating last December. It was a joke comment from Khan, because he’s not anywhere near the level of Mayweather in terms of accomplishments, popularity and pay per view numbers.
Khan isn’t even a PPV fighter in the United States, so it was a silly thing for him to say that Vargas should fight Maidana just to get to him. Let’s put this in perspective: Khan is the one that badly wants the Mayweather payday fight, not Mayweather. Since it’s Khan that wants this fight but who isn’t eager to take on guys like Andre Berto, Mike Jones, fight rematches with Maidana and Breidis Prescott and beat Lucas Matthysse, then he needs to follow what Mayweather is saying by fighting this Vargas guy.
Mayweather said this to Sky Sports News: “We want Amir Khan to fight the future of boxing, which is my fighter Jessie Vargas. If Khan gets past Jessie Vargas, then Khan has a fight with Floyd Mayweather. You’ve got to earn a fight with mayweather. He just fought a Zab Judah that I fought six years ago, I fought a young, strong, hungry Zab Judah and he fought a Zab Judah that’s a lot older. So once he fights Vargas then Amir Khan has a fight with Floyd Mayweather.”
That’s really not asking a lot if you think about it. Compared to what Khan should realistically be doing by facing Maidana and Prescott again or taking on Mike Jones, Victor Ortiz or Andre Berto, facing a guy like Vargas should be an easy thing, right? Well, there’s one catch here, Vargas can really punch and is like a younger version of Maidana. That’s obviously why Khan isn’t eager to take that fight even though it means that he could potentially get a big money fight against Mayweather.
By the way, all it will be is a money fight for Khan, because will destroy Khan with ease in a one-sided fight. But Khan will have gotten his payday bout with Mayweather. But Vargas is dangerous and if he catches Khan with a big shot, Khan will be in bad, bad shape and I can’t see him winning the fight. I doubt that Khan and Golden Boy promotions will be able to get referee Joe Cortez to work a Khan-Vargas fight because Mayweather will likely speak up and cancel that from happening.
Cortez was the referee that worked the Maidana-Khan fight and interrupted the action over and over again in the last three rounds when Khan was getting battered against the ropes. Vargas is an inside fighter, so Khan would have an advantage if a referee worked the fight that had a habit of breaking up inside action like Cortez did in the Maidana-Khan fight and the Mayweather vs. Ricky Hatton fight.
Khan may be off the hook for a fight against Vargas if he loses to Joseito Lopez this Saturday night on the undercard of the Mayweather-Ortiz fight. Mayweather likely won’t continue to push for Khan to fight Vargas if Vargas gets beaten by Lopez. Of course, you never know. Mayweather might still demand that Khan do this and it would be in Khan’s best interest to take the fight if he wants to get his payday fight against Mayweather.
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