Hatton thinks Khan will be selected by Mayweather for his May 3rd fight

By Boxing News - 02/03/2014 - Comments

khan432 - CopyBy Scott Gilfoid: Former Floyd Mayweather Jr. knockout victim Ricky Hatton has a strong opinion that the 27-year-old struggling Amir Khan (28-3, 19 KO’s) will be the one that Mayweather will ultimately select for his May 3rd fight in Las Vegas, Nevada. While Mayweather has asked boxing fans to select his next opponent from Khan and Marcos Maidana, Hatton sees it as Khan getting the fight all the way due to his large fan base in the UK.

If Mayweather chooses Khan to fight on May 3rd, there’s going to be a lot of unhappy campers. Maybe Khan’s British fans might like the fight, but the U.S fans who have seen Khan struggle in the last three years won’t be happy at all with Mayweather selecting him.

“You’ve got that United States vs. Great Britain rivalry, you could do it in Vegas, and when you look at the fighters available the best name out there is Amir Khan,” Hatton said to Talksport. So I think it will happen. And I do give Khan a chance…Styles make fights…He’s probably the only man who can match Floyd for Khan.”

I do believe that Hatton must have Khan mistaken for someone with a lot more talent, someone like Keith Thurman. The Khan I know stands little chance of doing anything other than losing badly to Mayweather, and likely in the first 2 or 3 rounds depending on how out of control Khan fights.

As far as the fight being a big USA vs. UK rivalry type of thing, I don’t see that happening either. Khan fights most of the time in the U.S. nowadays, so I doubt he’s going to get a huge amount of sympathetic Brits giving him a great deal of support. Yeah, there will be some Brits that will be actively pulling for Khan to beat Mayweather, but I suspect there won’t be many of them.

Now if this was a Carl Froch vs. Mayweather fight, then yeah, there would be a bunch of British working up a lather talking up Froch, and singing like mad come fight time with their football songs, but that’s not the case here. Khan left the UK a long time ago to try and find fame and fortune in the United States, and thus far he’s fallen short of the mark in a big way. Khan had his 15 minutes of fame in holding down the IBA/WBA light welterweight straps for a time, but that 15 minutes is over with. I can’t see Khan being able to capture another world title at 140 or grab one of the belts at 147.

Mayweather won’t have to do a whole heck of a lot to stomp Khan. Mayweather can pretty much sit and wait for Khan to come running forward like he always does, and when that happens, Mayweather will simply tap him in the chin with a left hook to send him down on the canvas. Khan will likely go into a brief chicken dance before he drops, but he’ll definitely be visiting the canvas and there’s not much he’ll be able to do about that.

Hatton wants Khan not to attack Mayweather like he normally does with his opponents. In other words, Hatton doesn’t want Khan fighting like he’s lost his senses completely and just charge Mayweather in an all-out blitz without much thought behind his attacks. Hatton wants Khan to stay on the outside and focus on using his hand speed and jab to force Mayweather to be the one that attacks. That’s all well and good, but Mayweather will quickly get to Khan and knock him out even if he’s the one that has to be the aggressor in the fight.



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