Roger Mayweather sees Khan as better opponent for Floyd than Maidana

By Boxing News - 01/08/2014 - Comments

floyd7878111By Chris Williams: In another sign that Floyd Mayweather Jr. (45-0, 26 KO’s) will likely be facing Amir Khan (28-3, 19 KO’s) on May 3rd rather than WBA welterweight champion Marcos Maidana (35-3, 31 KO’s), Roger Mayweather, the trainer for Mayweather Jr., Roger thinks that Khan is the better option for Floyd Jr. to fight next rather than Maidana.

Roger sees it coming down to Khan being the bigger fight for Floyd Jr. than a fight against Maidana. Roger doesn’t say why he feels this way, but he just thinks Khan has the bigger profile and the more recognizable name than the Argentinian Maidana.

“I think Amir Khan is a bigger fight. You got to have a guy that can stand up in order to get that television, to get television to watch it,” Roger said to Hustleboss.

Whoever Mayweather chooses, he will have done his research well to find out who the bigger name is and which guys is capable of drawing more fans through pay-per-view. Looking at it logically, I think Maidana has the much better chance of attracting the Hispanic audience than Khan. I doubt that Roger is factoring that in when he says he sees Khan as the bigger fight. Mayweather has picked Cinco de Mayo, the Mexican holiday weekend to fight on May 3rd, and that means a lot of Mexican boxing fans will be interested in watching a good fight.

Well if they have the option of paying to see Mayweather fight Khan, it’s doubtful that a lot of the fans will want to pay to see it, because it’s not a relevant fight for them, and the fight itself would be a mismatch due to Khan’s poor record in his last four fights. He’s won 2 and lost 2 in his last four fights. With Maidana, he has a better chance of attracting the Hispanic fans to watch the Mayweather fight than Khan, even though he’s from Argentina and not Mexico.

Khan would be a bigger fight if he had faced former IBF welterweight champion Devon Alexander last December and beaten him. At least if Khan had done that, he’d have one solid win under his belt in the past three years instead of none. Golden Boy Promotions had to back Khan off from tough competition after he was beaten in back to back fights by Lamont Peterson and Danny Garcia in 2011 and 2012. They matched him against lightweight Carlos Molina and Julio Diaz in his last two fights to get him winning again. It’s worked, because Khan has won his last two fights, but by him not getting a decent win to redeem himself after his two defeats, he’s pretty much limping into a possible Mayweather fight looking like damaged goods in the minds of many boxing fans.



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