Mayweather says he might face Khan in September

By Boxing News - 03/14/2014 - Comments

floyd673By Chris Williams: Amir Khan (28-3, 19 KO’s) failed to get the fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. this time around on May 3rd, but he could be could still get the fight against Mayweather Jr. later on this year in September. Mayweather says that he may fight Khan in September depending on how things go. Mayweather has a fight against WBA welterweight champion Marcos Maidana (35-3, 31 KO’s) on May 3rd at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Khan is a strong possibility for the undercard against Luis Collazo.

Khan will obviously have to not only beat Collazo, but look good in doing so. He can’t have another fight like he did last year in April against Julio Diaz where he’s knocked down and hurt several times. Khan has to win conclusively over Collazo because the last thing Mayweather needs is a dark cloud hanging over his head if he chooses Khan coming off of another controversial win.

“I feel like I chose the better guy,” Mayweather said to the Boxingchannel about his decision to face Maidana instead of Khan. “We may fight Amir Khan in September.”

Mayweather will have to beat Maidana, and that’s going to be a tough fight. Maidana might bring more to the table than Mayweather’s last two opponents Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Robert Guerrero did, because he knows that he doesn’t stand a chance if he tries to stay on the outside to boxing Mayweather. Maidana is arguably a smarter fighter than Canelo, because he won’t make the same mistake Canelo did in trying to box Mayweather. Maidana will come right at Mayweather and try to slug with him, and that gives him his best chance of winning the fight.

Mayweather says he chose Maidana instead of Khan to fight due to Khan’s poor results in his last four fights, and because Maidana won more polls than Khan did. He felt that more people wanted to see him fight Maidana than they did Khan, which is why he chose to ignore his own poll on his website Mayweather Promotions.

“There was all kinds of polls,” Mayweather said. “Amir Khan was winning on my poll, but on the other polls he was getting blown out. Amir Khan is 2-2 in his last four fights, whereas Maidana is 4-0 with 3 knockdowns.”

Speaking of Khan’s victory over Maidana in 2010, Mayweather said “He [Khan] couldn’t finish the job….If he [Maidana] had one more minute, Maidana would have knocked Amir Khan out.”

Khan did appear to be on the verge of being knocked out by Maidana in their fight in 2010. If the referee had stood back and let Maidana finish a badly hurt Khan off in the 10th after hurting him, the fight would have probably ended in that round. But the referee was frequently injecting himself into the fight by putting himself in between the two fighters and creating an obstacle for Maidana after he hurt Khan.

One thing Khan will need to avoid doing is sulking about not getting the Mayweather fight. He’s going to have to look at Mayweather’s decision in choosing Maidana in an adult manner and not personalize it to where Mayweather did it to make him look bad. That’s not what the case was. Mayweather decided that Maidana was the better guy for the fight base don a number of criteria. If Khan chooses to sulk and drag his heals by not fighting on Mayweather’s card or not doing what Mayweather asks him to do, then Khan will end up losing the fight for a second time.



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