By Scott Gilfoid: Amir Khan turned down a fight against IBF welterweight champion on December 7th that would have put Khan in a position where he had the cache to get a big money engagement against Floyd Mayweather Jr. for May 3rd.
Khan’s move to avoid the risky fight with Alexander to get the bigger money bout against Mayweather could backfire on him with Khan getting nothing, as Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer is saying that there’s no guarantee that he’ll get the fight with Mayweather.
Dan Rafael of ESPN said this about Khan on his twitter “Schaefer says No surprise that Khan declined to fight Alexander. That said, a Mayweather fight for Khan is by no means a done deal at all. #boxing.”
So there it is. Khan could end up with nothing if Schaefer is unable to line up a fight for him against Mayweather. If Khan can’t get the Alexander fight, then he’s going to have to try and fight the winner of the December 14th Marcos Maidana vs. Adrien Broner bout at some point in 2014. We already saw how Khan struggled badly to beat Maidana in 2010 in winning a close 12 round decision. I don’t think Khan is the same fighter now as he was back then. As it is, Khan barely beat Maidana.
Mayweather doesn’t like to face opposition that aren’t fighting at a high level. With Khan having lost 2 out of his last 4 fights, Mayweather might not have the interest in facing an opponent like that. I mean, there are a ton of fighters in boxing that have stats like that, and Mayweather can do a lot better in facing someone that’s still fighting well like Alexander, Keith Thurman, or Danny Garcia.
I think any one of those guys would be an excellent opponent for Mayweather to fight on May 3rd. The date of the fight falls on the Mexican holiday Cinco de Mayo, so perhaps Mayweather should find a Mexican fighter to face him instead of one of those guys. The problem Mayweather has is he already beat two of the more popular Mexican fighters in Victor Ortiz and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, so he needs to search hard to find another big name that will qualify for that date.
Ideally, Khan needs at least 3 good wins over top opposition to redeem himself after his losses to Danny Garcia and Lamont Peterson and his near loss to Julio Diaz. People forget about how Khan almost lost to Diaz in his last fight in April. I thought Diaz won the fight, but the judges gave it to Khan by a 12 round unanimous decision in the UK. I count that as another loss for Khan. He honestly needs three wins for him to be a decent opponent for Mayweather, but it’s just not realistic to think that Khan will get three big wins or even one at this point in his career. Just asking Khan to beat someone like Lucas Matthysse would likely be too much for him, and I don’t even think he would take the fight.
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