By Duke Pahulu: Floyd Mayweather Jr. (45-0, 26 KO’s) is set to face Marcos Maidana (35-3, 31 KO’s) on May 3rd at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. The threat of Amir Khan has been thwarted for now and instead Floyd is facing a deserved foe in Maidana.
Maidana has been on a roll since his after his welter debut against Devon Alexander. And with his last win against the favored Adrien Broner, Maidana has proven to be a top welterweight worthy of a shot. But the reason why Floyd even considered Khan as a reasonable foe had me scratching my head.
I know Khan is popular in the UK but he is still rebuilding from his KO from Danny Garcia. If Floyd wanted to boost UK numbers, he should have picked Kell Brook who is an undefeated natural welter in his prime. Nobody who saw Khan’s last bout against Julio Diaz came away thinking the kid is ready for Floyd. It’s the job of Golden Boy to build up a good fighter to make him a good b-side for Floyd. I thought they were heading on that track with putting Garcia-Matthysee on the Floyd-Canelo card.
The winner of that bout should have been in line for Floyd’s foe this May. Instead, Golden Boy put Garcia’s momentum on hold and gave him a stay-busy fight against an ESPN2 fighter. You can argue that Garcia is too small for Floyd. My counterpoint is that Floyd has already proven that big doesn’t mean better. And if Floyd cut the junk food and soda, he could make 140 and get the one Ring title he hasn’t earned in his career. That would have made him the second fighter other than Henry Armstrong to hold three Ring titles at once.
The ultimate point is that Golden Boy wasted an opportunity to build a proper foe for Floyd. Luckily, Broner-Maidana happened and made things right. But Golden Boy can’t rely on luck regarding Floyd’s next foe in September. They need to use the co-main event of Floyd-Maidana as an eliminator for Floyd’s September fight. If you want to be fair, the fight should be Shawn Porter-Keith Thurman. They are the two highest ranked welters other than the main event that Golden Boy has. But Golden Boy seems to have Khan on a pedestal and wants his next fight to be an eliminator for Floyd in the fall.
The problem is that it seems more likely that Khan wants an easier fight Porter or Thurman. And with Broner and Luis Collazo trading words with Khan, Khan may be going on an easier route to get Floyd. If Golden Boy is pushing for a Floyd-Khan showdown, they got to make Khan work for it. They shouldn’t just give him the fight based solely on his appeal. It’s funny that the guy that Danny Garcia used to put himself on the map is the guy being lazily groomed for Floyd. When Floyd went over to Showtime, Golden Boy should have made a plan on how to groom guys to make Floyd fights bigger events. They failed with keeping Cotto in the fold to secure a lucrative rematch. They put Porter and Thurman in position to compete but their names got no press when Floyd was looking for a fight. Instead, they allowed Khan a platform to hype up interest. The squeaky wheel almost got the oil. Let’s hope Golden Boy learned from this mess and set things straight to properly set up a deserving foe for Floyd in September.
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