By William Mackay: Promoter Oscar De La Hoya is already to put his budding star Amir Khan in with Floyd Mayweather Jr. in early 2012 depending on how well Khan does against challenger Lamont Peterson on Saturday in Washington, DC. Khan plans on moving up in weight after this fight to seek out bigger fights at welterweight and his goal is to face Mayweather and be the one that hands him his first loss of his career.
Speaking with the Telegraph.co.uk, De La Hoya said “I’d be happy to put Amir in against Floyd Mayweather next May if the option presents itself. I really do think he’s ready.”
De La Hoya is kind of in a bind here. If he risks putting Khan in with someone good at welterweight like Andre Berto, Victor Ortiz or Mike Jones, Khan could be knocked out. At the very least, he could struggle and look terrible even in winning. It’s hard to see Khan beating any of those fighters in an impressive manner. If De La Hoya matches Khan against some of the weaker opposition, Khan will be overmatched when he faces a Mayweather.
Khan really hasn’t taken on a younger quality fighter for a while. Khan struggled against Marcos Maidana in winning a decision and then got a weak puncher in Paul McCloskey, who made Khan look really bad with his defensive skills. If a limited fighter like McCloskey can make Khan look bad just try and imagine what Mayweather would do to Khan. I doubt that De La Hoya cares about that, because the money a Khan-Mayweather fight would make for all those involved would more than make up for Khan getting slaughtered by Mayweather.
I think De La Hoya is going to have to match Khan light when he moves up in weight unless they can convince Mayweather to fight him immediately in May. Khan’s chin is too weak to put him in with Berto, Jones or Ortiz and it would be a recipe for destruction.
I personally think De La Hoya should try as hard as he can to convince Mayweather to take the Khan fight in early 2012, because if they wait, Khan is probably going to get slaughtered unless they keep matching him against feather-fisted fighters like Peterson and McCloskey. Unfortunately for De La Hoya and Khan, at welterweight they hit harder and it will be like putting Khan through an obstacle course to match him carefully so that he doesn’t exposed again. Khan doesn’t have the chin to stand in there with the big punchers unless he’s got his wheels working all night and/or a referee that breaks up the action when Khan is getting pummeled.
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