By Scott Gilfoid: WBC Silver welterweight champion Amir Khan (29-3, 19 KO’s) is finally coming to terms with the reality that there’s very little chance of him getting a fight against WBA/WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. next due to Khan being unable to meet Mayweather’s September 13th fight date. Khan has Ramadan in September, and won’t be able to fight Mayweather during that time.
Khan’s still hoping that Mayweather will move his fight date to October or November to accommodate him, but Khan is starting to realize the chances of that happening are slim. Given the reality of the Mayweather fight not happening, Khan says he’d be interested in fighting someone like Robert Guerrero (31-2-1, 18 KO’s) if possible. Khan also likes the idea of fighting IBF welterweight champion Shawn Porter, Marcos Maidana and Devon Alexander. How much interest in unknown.
Maidana and Porter would be very, very dangerous fights for Khan, even with him holding and running all night like he did last Saturday night in his win over 33-year-old Luis Collazo. Maidana doesn’t just give up when he’s held, so Khan would still getting nailed no matter how many times he grabbed Maidana by the neck and bent him over.
“I think Robert Guerrero could be an ideal opponent in the future, even a rematch with Marcos Maidana or Shawn Porter, who just had a great win,” Khan said to Sky Ringside. Porter is a great fighter, he is very strong and very quick.”
Porter has a potential mandatory title defense against Kell Brook in July, but if he gets passed him, he could possibly be available to fight Khan by November or December.
Guerrero has a fight next month against Yoshihiro Kamegai (24-1-1, 21 KO’s) on June 21st in Los Angeles, California. If Guerrero wins that fight, he could be available for a fight against Khan later in the year if Golden Boy can put it together. Guerrero hasn’t fought since his loss to Mayweather last year in May.
You can see why Khan might want to fight a guy like Guerrero, as he’s a former featherweight without much speed or power to speak of. Guerrero would be perfect for Khan because he doesn’t have the power or speed that better welterweights like Keith Thurman have, and there would be less of a chance that Khan would be knocked out the way he likely would be if he faced Thurman. Guerrero was able to get a fight against Mayweather by beating Andre Berto and Selcuk Aydin. In other words, Guerrero didn’t have to do much to get the fight with Mayweather. If beating Berto is the measuring stick to get a fight against Mayweather, then Jesus Soto Karass should have gotten a crack at Mayweather as well, because he did a better job of beating Berto than Guerrero did.
Maidana might get selected by Mayweather for a rematch in September, but if he doesn’t then he’d likely jump at the chance to fight Khan again. I’m just not so certain that Khan’s manager Al Haymon would give the green light to Khan fighting a slugger like Maidana, because Khan was almost knocked out by Maidana four years ago in their fight in 2010. Maidana had Khan out on his feet in the last three rounds of the fight, but the referee working the fight – Joe Cortez – constantly broke the action when Maidana was hitting Khan with pulverizing punches against the ropes. Maidana believes that he would have knocked Khan out if he hadn’t been pulled off of Khan again and again by Cortez. That was another fight where Khan did a lot of holding, especially in the last three rounds. You can make an argument that Khan should have lost at least 2 points during the last three rounds due to his nonstop clinching. It looked excessive, and it definitely kept Maidana from finishing him off.
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