By Chris Williams: Amir Khan (28-3, 19 KO’s) says he’s he seems himself as having a “60 percent” chance of getting the May 3rd fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr., according to RingTV. Khan is leaving the negotiations up with his promoters at Golden Boy, and they want to keep it under wraps until they make an announcement in a week or so. Golden Boy wants to be the ones that reveals the information so they can start marketing the fight.
Mayweather will receive a great deal of criticism if he faces the 27-year-old Khan, because he’s not the “solid” fighter that Mayweather said he wants to fight next. If anything, you can say that Khan is a rather fragile opponent considering that he’s been knocked out twice and beaten in two out of his last four fights. Mayweather and Golden Boy would likely be counting on the casual boxing fans not being aware of Khan’s defeats so that they could have mainly the good things in his career highlighted in Showtime’s All Access episodes to market the fight.
Khan said to RingTV “Mayweather’s the boss, and he’s going to announce who he’s going to fight. Styles make fights. I think there’s a 60 percent chance that it could happen.”
This would be like a tune-up fight for Mayweather. It would be the equivalent of what Manny Pacquiao recently did with his fight against former WBA lightweight champion Brandon Rios. Pacquiao took a break from fighting quality opposition and faced Rios for an easy fight. It turned out well for Pacquiao because he looked better than he has looked in years. Mayweather doesn’t need a tune-up, but it looks like he could be taking this fight for an easy win while he reloads for what could be a big fight against Pacquiao at the end of the year or against a top junior middleweight like Erislandy Lara.
What makes you wonder about the Khan-Mayweather fight is that Mayweather doesn’t like soft opposition, because he prefers to face guys that the boxing public respects. I think Khan is a good fighter, but he’s not someone that will get Mayweather a lot of respect from fans when he beats him. Fans will not be impressed because Khan has already been beaten three times and he was almost beaten two other times by Marcos Maidana and Julio Diaz. Khan could easily have 5 losses on his resume right now, and he’s not beaten a good fighter in many years since his victory over Maidana in 2010. That win was questionable because of the referee Joe Cortez getting in the way of Maidana when he was trying to finish Khan off in the 10th and 11th rounds after he had him badly hurt.
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