By Scott Gilfoid: Virgil Hunter, the trainer for WBC Silver welterweight champion Amir Khan (29-3, 19 KO’s), likes the idea of Khan fighting WBA/WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. (46-0, 26 KO’s) next year in May rather than later this year because the 27-year-old Khan will be able to get another training camp in between before that time. Hunter thinks Khan will improve with each training camp he gets under his belt with him before facing the 37-year-old Mayweather.
No one from Mayweather’s management has said anything about wanting to fight Khan in May of next year, so Hunter may be longing for something that ultimately never takes place.
“I would like Amir to fight Mayweather in May,” he said. “Personally, that would be my preference. That would give us two more camps and if it happens next May, he wins. If it goes later this year, we have ample time and I give Amir a good chance.”
Well, if Khan is going to be fighting someone before the May date, he needs to try and fight someone a little younger and more relevant than the last guy that Khan fought in Luis Collazo. It’s unclear whether Collazo was Khan’s adviser Al Haymon’s choice of Golden Boy Promotions’ choice.
Either way, Khan needs to step it up against fighters of today instead of guys from yesterday like Collazo and Julio Diaz. It’s hard to take Khan seriously when he’s not fighting relevant guys anymore. It was probably a bad experience when Khan stepped it up against the quality fighters at 140 in back to back defeats against Danny Garcia and Lamont Peterson, but Khan can’t just give up on fighting quality guys just because he had a couple of bad experiences.
Khan needs to step back up to the plate and get in the ring with someone like Lucas Matthysse, Keith Thurman or Shawn Porter and prove that he deserves to be in the same ring with Mayweather, because right now I don’t think Khan has proven that. I’m sorry, I don’t see little 5’5” Carlos Molina, past his prime Collazo and Diaz as fighters good enough for Khan to get a fight against Mayweather.
If all took was to beat Diaz and Collazo to get a shot against Mayweather, then we’d be seeing Collazo conqueror Freddy Hernandez asking for his shot at Mayweather because he recently knocked out Collazo.
Khan’s next fight is a real opportunity for him to make a case that he deserves a fight against Mayweather. If Khan were to take actual good opponent and prove that he beat them without shoving, pulling down on their heads and putting them in head locks for 12 rounds, I think he’d be an appealing opponent for Mayweather. But right now you still have to see Khan as having done zero to redeem himself since his losses to Peterson and Garcia, because Collazo, Molina and Diaz aren’t big enough wins to show that Khan is back.
Additionally, all that fouling that Khan did against Collazo has to go because Mayweather likely won’t want to be fighting someone that’s going to be grabbing him or shoving him all night long next May. Khan needs to keep it clean and show that he can win a fight without fighting dirty.
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