Khan and Alexander agree to fight on December 7th, venue still to be determined

By Boxing News - 08/20/2013 - Comments

alexander434By Scott Gilfoid: IBF welterweight champion Devon Alexander (25-1, 19 KO’s) and Amir Khan (28-3, 19 KO’s) have agreed to face each other on December 7th at a venue still to be determined, according to Lance Pugmire of the LA Times. Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer is still hoping to have the fight take place in Dubai in order to take advantage of Khan’s fans there.

It’s a risk if Schaefer does stage a fight there, because it could very well do poorly with few fans showing up. The other option for the fight is at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. In other words, the options are Dubai or New York.

I’m not sure if Schaefer is aware of it not, but Alexander isn’t from New York, and he doesn’t have a large fan base there. Alexander is from Saint Louis, Missouri, and his fans are not on the East Coast. Khan doesn’t have a fan base in the New York area either, as he’s from the UK.

You have to wonder whether Schaefer is thinking all of this through clearly, because staging the fight in New York is a pretty dumb idea. The only way Khan-Alexander fight works in New York is if you place the fight on an undercard of a bunch of New York fighters. If I was from New York, I wouldn’t see Khan-Alexander. I’d rather see a New York fighter. It’s going to be a laugh if Schaefer stages the Khan-Alexander fight in New York, and the crowd is less than 1,000 people. I guess that’ll teach him. I see Khan as a short fighter who already got exposed in 2 out of his last 4 fights. Why would New Yorkers want to see him fight? Schaefer needs to wise up and take Khan back to the UK where he can sell out an area in any city.

The only two logical places for the Khan-Alexander fight to take place is St. Louis or the UK. Anything other than that will likely be a disaster with only a trickle of fans showing up. Even staging a Khan-Alexander fight in Las Vegas, Nevada would be a huge risk, because Khan doesn’t have a fan base there, and neither does Alexander.

Khan hasn’t faced a quality opponent since being blown out by Danny Garcia last year in July. Khan has fought twice since then, beating 2nd tier lightweight Carlos Molina and past his best Julio Diaz.

Khan is being steered towards a fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr., and Golden Boy must think that Khan can beat Alexander otherwise they wouldn’t risk having him get beat by making the fight.



Comments are closed.