Khan: Maybe my religious beliefs gives Mayweather an excuse not to fight me

By Boxing News - 05/06/2014 - Comments

khan84By Scott Gilfoid: WBC Silver welterweight champion Amir Khan (29-3, 19 KO’s) took himself out of the running for WBA/WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr’s next fight in September by announcing at last Saturday’s post-fight press conference that there’s no way that he can fight Mayweather in September due to Ramadan.

Khan then went on to say that Mayweather can always move off of his preset September 13th fight date in order to fight him in November or December. Now Khan is implying that Mayweather is using his religious commitment as an excuse not to fight him this year.

It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me for Mayweather to move off of his September 13th date, which he picked in order to take advantage of the Mexican Independence Day holiday weekend, in order to fight Khan in November or December. Mayweather will get a huge amount of Mexican fans to purchase his September 13th fight on pay-per-view if he stays on that date. If he moves from the date, he’ll likely bring in far less than 1 million buys to fight someone like Khan, who doesn’t have a huge fan base in the United States. Khan is popular in the UK and places like Asia, but in the U.S, he still doesn’t fill seats or bring in the huge ratings.

“Maybe my fasting gives Floyd the excuse he has been looking for not to fight me,” Khan said. “Even when the fans’ poll over who he should fight went in my favour, he still didn’t fight me. Maybe my religious beliefs give Floyd an excuse not to fight me. If he offers the fight in September, he knows it will get turned down. That way he could turn round and say Amir Khan did not want the fight. They’re aware of all this, so why can’t they wait a couple of months?”

Gee, that almost sounds like Khan has a sense of entitlement that he deserves the fight against Mayweather, doesn’t it? Why should Mayweather move off his date to accomodate Khan if he can’t fight when Mayweather, the A-side, already has a scheduled date. There’s nothing golden about fighting Khan in November, December or whenever. The American public isn’t pushing for a Khan-Mayweather fight. The fight the American public wants to see is Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao, and even the interest in that fight has pretty much deteriorated due to public weariness at the fight not having been made.

Khan will be available to fight Mayweather twice next year due to Ramadan taking place in June and July of 2015. However, I still don’t think Khan will get the fight unless he faces someone that is actually relevant rather than the guy that Golden Boy Promotions set Khan up with last Saturday night in 33-year-old Luis Collazo. Khan’s last three wins have come against Julio Diaz, Collazo and little 5’5″ Carlos Molina. Those aren’t good enough opponents for Khan to make a case that he deserves a fight against Mayweather.

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Khan needs to fight either Shawn Porter or Keith Thurman, preferably both, and prove that he can beat them. If Khan can pass both of those tests without getting knocked out cold or disqualified for holding, shoving or pulling down on his opponent’s necks, then he will have proven that he deserves the fight against Mayweather. But as of right now, Khan has still won only 3 out of his last 5 fights and that’s not good. A 3-2 record doesn’t put you in a Mayweather fight, or at least it shouldn’t. Khan needs to prove that he can beat young fighters like Thurman and Porter before he gets a fight against Mayweather.



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