By Scott Gilfoid: It’s still unknown who WBA/WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr (47-0, 26 KOs) will be fighting next May in his next fight. Some boxing fans think Mayweather should fight Amir Khan while others feel that WBO 147lb champion Manny Pacquiao is the guy that Mayweather should pick so that he can get the biggest payday possible.
ESPN’s Teddy Atlas sees Mayweather choosing Amir Khan (29-3, 19 KOs) as his next opponent. Atlas sees a Mayweather-Khan fight as one that would make a lot of money for Mayweather whether it be in the United States or England. Atlas believes that a lot of boxing fans would be interested in seeing a Mayweather-Khan fight.
“Khan, probably Amir Khan,” Atlas said to ESPN.com in predicting who Mayweather will fight next. “I don’t know if it’ll be in London or fight here in the home of Floyd Mayweather, where he gets paid a lot of money if you haven’t noticed. He has a contract over his head and 1 or 2 more fights to complete it. He picks his guys pretty good. He’s going to pick Amir Khan, and he can make money with Amir Khan. It’s a big fight in London. Over here it’s not as big, but he can make a lot of money.”
Mayweather would likely bring in over 1 million pay-per-view buys in a Khan fight next May, as long as Khan looks good in his next fight against a credible opponent. Khan would help make a fight against him and Mayweather a lot bigger if he’d take on a top tier contender like Devon Alexander or Robert Guerrero next December.
Khan needs to fight at least one credible opponent because the guy that is being mentioned as Khan’s next opponent, Josesito Lopez, doesn’t have a big enough name to give Khan any kind of bounce from a win over him. Lopez is more of the type of opponent that a contender fights as a tune-up bout, but not to get a big money fight against the likes of Mayweather. If Khan’s adviser Al Haymon is pushing the Lopez fight then Khan needs to be assertive with his career. To be sure, Khan will likely get the Mayweather fight regardless of whether he faces a good opponent in December or not, but if he wants to make more money off of the pay-per-view sales then Khan needs to fight a good opponent in December so that boxing fans will get excited about him fighting Mayweather instead of seeing him as another victim.
“He [Mayweather] didn’t show enough offense. He did enough to win. If that’s Sugar Ray Leonard in there, he knocks out Maidana,” Atlast said. “Floyd is a good defensive fighter, but he does just enough to win. He had a choice [to] use his legs to grab all night long and fight in spots. He did that good. He could have moved his head and looked to counter. He didn’t want to do that. He didn’t want to give Maidana a chance with that free-wheeling style to get lucky with something. But he had a choice. He could have gone into his offense a little bit, punch a little bit more and keep Maidana from getting in. No warnings all night long for holding. If that’s not Floyd Mayweather then a referee warns him.”
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