Amir Khan now #1 WBC contender behind champion Mayweather

By Boxing News - 05/17/2014 - Comments

khan66By Scott Gilfoid: In a sign that the World Boxing Council would like to see WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. (46-0, 26 KO’s) fight WBC Silver welterweight champion Amir Khan (29-3, 19 KO’s) in the near future, the WBC has elevated Khan to the #1 contender in their welterweight rankings below Mayweather. Khan takes Luis Carlos Abregu’s place at the #1 WBC contender.

This doesn’t mean that Khan will neccessarily get a fight against Mayweather, because he could very well be ignored by him just as Abregu was. The WBC can’t force Mayweather to fight Khan, because if they try and do that, Mayweather could vacate his 147 lb title and then the WBC would be stuck with a much, much smaller sanctioning fee for whoever takes Mayweather’s place as the next champion.

The WBC hasn’t made Khan the official mandatory challenger to Mayweather as of yet, but that’s something that could happen in the near future. Ideally, you’d like to see Khan have to fight an eliminator to become the mandatory challenger by fighting someone in the top 10 to become the WBC mandatory, but there’s not much for Khan to fight in terms of good opposition. If Khan takes on Abregu for the mandatory spot, it wouldn’t be a big enough fight to make Mayweather want to fight the still unproven Khan. I mean, khan’s record is 3-2 in his last five fights and all three of his victories have come against weaker opposition that were put in front of him to keep him from losing any more fights.

Khan really hasn’t faced quality opposition since his back to back losses to Lamont Peterson and Danny Garcia, because Khan’s wins since then have come against little Carlos Molina, a way, way past his best Julio Diaz and an aging 33-year-old Luis Collazo.

Yeah, Khan can fight one of the contenders that the WBC has ranked in their top 15 to become the mandatory, but we’re talking about lesser talents and not nearly big enough names to erase the fact that Khan failed when he was put in against good opposition. The only way that Khan can really prove that he deserves a shot against Mayweather is to take on and beat Shawn Porter and Keith Thurman, but it doesn’t look like Khan has any ideas of doing that. In an interview this week with Boxnation, Khan was talking about Victor Ortiz and Robert Guerrero as “big names” that he’s considering for his next fight. Those are safe picks and not nearly dangerous as Porter or Thurman.

Mayweather really needs to make sure he’s fighting the best, and if Khan isn’t going to prove himself against Porter and Thurman, then it doesn’t matter if the WBC eventually makes him the mandatory challenger to him. Mayweather can ignore the WBC or vacate the title if they try and insist that he fight an unproven fighter.



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