By Scott Gilfoid: Former IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (29-3, 19 KOs) says he’ll be back in the ring in December against possibly Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero (32-2-1, 18 KO’s), Devon Alexander (26-2, 14 KOs) or another opponent.
Khan says that his adviser Al Haymon is working on the date for the fight to be televised in the United States on Showtime in December. Khan says he wants a big name that will get him a fight against WBA/WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Khan also says he’s open to fighting Manny Pacquiao in the future now that Top Rank and Golden Boy Promotions are willing to work with each other now.
“I’m looking at fighting in December, maybe the second week,” Khan said to BT Sport. “I talked to Al Haymon a couple of days ago. Hopefully we can get that finalized for TV in America. There are a few names like Alexander, Robert Guerrero. I want to fight the top guys again to get into the position to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr and some of the big names.”
Khan hasn’t given up on his pursuit of Mayweather even though he’s not fought anyone even remotely good enough for him to share the ring with the talented champion.
Khan was on the verge of naming a third name but he was interrupted by one of the talking heads on the show, who stepped on his attempts to name the third guy. But obviously Alexander and Guerrero are the two top guys that Khan is looking to fight next, so I don’t expect a third option to come up that would move ahead of one of those guys.
Khan obviously knows that he can’t fight anymore old timers like he’s done in his last two fights again Julio Diaz and Luis Collazo and expect to get a fight against Mayweather. That’s not going to work, especially with Khan having unfinished business with Danny Garcia, Lamont Peterson and Breidis Prescott.
It already looks incredibly bad that Khan never avenged any of those losses. This is why it’s going to take a victory over a really good opponent for Khan to get a shot at Mayweather, and I’m not sure that you can consider Alexander or Guerrero good enough fighters for him to get a fight against Mayweather.
Guerrero just went life and death with little known fringe contender Yoshihiro Kamegai in beating him by a narrow 12 round decision last June, so Guerrero’s stock is way, way down right now. A win over Guerrero for Khan would be pretty much the same as a win over Collazo. Alexander was recently beaten by Porter last December, so Khan gains little in beating him.
It’s a step up from the old timers Khan has been beating recently, but not much of one. Unless Khan wants to step inside the ring to try and avenge his three losses to Prescott, Garcia and Peterson, then he’s going to need to beat guys that haven’t been recently exposed. Unfortunately Guerrero and Alexander both have been exposed recently, and that makes them guys that will give Khan essentially nothing if he beats them.
The only guys that will help Khan get a fight against Mayweather, besides the three that whipped him, is Shawn Porter and Keith Thurman. If Khan can beat either of them, then he’ll be in a good position to fight Mayweather. But unfortunately Khan hasn’t been talking about wanting to fight them.
“The speed is still there, but I can see the guys I’m fighting are a lot stronger,” Khan said. “I’m taking shots a lot better at 147 than I did at 140 because I’m making the weight a lot easier.”
With Khan only having one fight under his belt at 147 against an older welterweight in Collazo, Khan hardly is in the position to say whether his chin is better at 147. Khan also said the same thing about his chin when he moved up from the lightweight division to light welterweight following his 1st round knockout loss to Prescott.
What we discovered was that Khan still struggled when facing guys that could actually punch like Marcos Maidana and Danny Garcia. Khan likely would have been knocked out by Maidana if the referee working the fight Joe Cortez hadn’t gotten in between the two fighters so frequently in the last three rounds after Maidana had Khan out on his feet.
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