By Rachel Aylett: Rumors persist and, indeed, grow increasingly stronger, that Amir Khan is likely to be Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s next opponent. Many people are aghast at such an apparent mismatch. Khan has not had a significant win since defeating Zab Judah in July 2011 in defense of his WBA/IBF light-welterweight titles. Since then he has been out-gamed by Lamont Peterson and badly stopped by Danny Garcia.
Khan has subsequently scored two low key victories, over ordinary Carlos Molina and past-his-best Julio Diaz, the latter not without difficulty. All these fights were at light-welterweight.
The last few months have been filled with talk of how Khan, now being trained by Virgil Hunter, would be moving up to welterweight in order to challenge Devon Alexander for the latter’s IBF title. This was a decent enough match, with plenty of people thinking Khan might have the skills to take Alexander’s title. It was a fight to look forward to and, whilst not quite 50/50, certainly would have given us plenty of debate during the months preceding the fight as to who would win.
It now seems likely though that Khan is going to be challenging Mayweather for his WBC welterweight title in May of next year. If this fight were to be held in the U.K. it would not surprise me at all. Since his fight with Ricky Hatton in December 2007, Mayweather seems to have been fascinated by the British boxing fans. Never before has a fighter taken so many fans across the water to support their man as did Hatton on that occasion. Also, in Floyd’s last trip to the UK he was virtually mobbed and the clamor to get a glimpse of him was amazing. The seeds were sown on that visit and it must have been in Floyd’s mind from then on that he would like to box in Britain.
For that reason I believe that Floyd intends coming to the UK to fight a British opponent. The only remotely marketable option for him is Amir Khan. Khan is, after all, a former major belt holder who has boxed on US television on many occasions. He is known on both sides of the Atlantic. I further believe that the fight will take place at a football stadium, possibly even Wembley. Floyd is so popular in Britain that people will buy tickets to see him fight anyone, it really wouldn’t much matter who was in the opposing corner. It won’t mean anything to the fans that this is a mismatch, or that Khan has done absolutely nothing to deserve this opportunity. Tickets will be sold in their thousands. It will be difficult working out the logistics as, due to the demands of US television and the time difference between the nations, the fight may need to take place in the early hours of the following Sunday morning. This is likely to keep the attendance down somewhat, but not by a huge amount.
This is a fight that would hold little interest for me personally. I am not a huge fan of Floyd, although appreciate his wonderful skills. He is rarely in an exciting fight. It would also confirm that boxing, far from being a sport nowadays, is very much a business. There are many more deserving challengers to Floyd than Khan. Many people would resent Khan getting what will be a huge payday for himself, and rightly so. As pundit Steve Bunce often says though, you don’t get what you deserve in boxing, you get what you negotiate.
As for Khan, by the time this fight came around he would have gone almost three years without a decent win. He is likely to take a warm up in the meantime, but it will not be against anyone of any significance. I imagine that this fight would signal the end of his boxing career, but what a way to go out, in front of thousands of people in a massive stadium event. It is clear that Khan is no longer enamored with the sport. He seems much more intent on being a celebrity now than being a boxing champion. In fact, boxing often seems the last thing he wants to talk about these days.
I see this as the first step in Mayweather’s winding down process towards the end of his boxing career. I have stated many times that Floyd will never face anyone who has a reasonable chance of defeating him. That’s why I couldn’t raise much of an interest in “The One”. If Floyd thought he might be at risk in that fight he never would have signed for it. So it proved. In any event, the only serious challenge that lies out there for Floyd would almost certainly have to come from one of today’s top middleweights and, really, we can’t blame him for not going that route. Fighting Golovkin, for example, would be a huge risk for him.
Let’s hope the Mayweather story doesn’t turn into too much of a circus before it has run its course.
@RachelAylett1
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