By Scott Gilfoid: While Floyd Mayweather Jr came out on Tuesday and revealed in an interview that he has zero interest in fighting Amir Khan due to his name not holding any weight among casual boxing fans in the United States, Khan still believes he’ll be the one that winds up facing Mayweather next May in 2015.
Khan might wind up sadly disappointed if he holds out with that belief, because Mayweather says he’s totally focused on getting a fight against Manny Pacquiao on May 2nd, not a fight against Khan.
Mayweather pointed out that Khan sold around 4,000 tickets. The MGM has a max seating capacity of 16,800. This means that if Mayweather’s number is true then Khan wasn’t even close to selling out the MGM Grand for his fight against Devon Alexander.
“The plan would be the Mayweather fight in May, because he likes to fight in May,” Khan said via Skysports.com. “I’ve proven my point and my position in the world of boxing and now I’ve fought twice in the welterweight division.”
Khan might do well to have his adviser Al Haymon start looking ahead for alternatives to a Mayweather fight in early 2015 just in case Mayweather decides he’s not going to change his mind about fighting him.
At least Khan won’t end up sitting out almost an entire year waiting on Mayweather like he did in 2013 when he failed to take the Alexander fight then because he thought he was going to get a bout against Mayweather.
Khan would help himself out greatly if he were to face Kell Brook, Keith Thurman and Marcos Maidana in 2015. Khan might then win over some fans in the U.S and he could then possibly bring in better stats on Showtime in terms of viewers, and he could bring in a larger gate.
To get a big fight against Mayweather and Pacquiao, Khan needs to start winning over fans in the U.S, because this is where the main pay-per-view buys will be deriving from.
It’s all good and well that Khan can sell some pay-per-views from his home country of the UK, but the real money comes from the U.S with the PPV sales over there. If Khan is bringing in low ratings on Showtime and selling only 4,000 tickets for his fights at the MGM Grand, then I don’t think he’s going to ever be high on Mayweather’s list for a possible future opponent.
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