Amir Khan vs Floyd Mayweather 2015

By Boxing News - 01/14/2015 - Comments

khan3By Faisel Khan: That is the title that many boxing fans across the globe are waiting to see plastered everywhere. Amir Khan has desired this fight for a long time. In the past, Floyd Mayweather Jr has also showed some interest in this fight when in an interview he said Khan has a ‘cool’ fan base and that the fight would make sense. So it seemed like Khan was going to land this fight, especially after Khan had won the official poll which Mayweather had set up on his website – to Khan’s disappointment he chose Marcos Maidana instead. Khan continued by fighting Luis Collazo, where he put on a good performance and showed some improvement in his new more ‘cautious’ style under his trainer Virgil Hunter.

Meanwhile, Floyd decided to rematch Maidana even though this fight had never really been appealing for the fans, and this was reflected on the PPV buys which both were under a million buys which is below par for Mayweather. On 13/12/2014 – Khan fought Alexander in a match-up that most considered as a 50/50 fight. Khan surprised many by out boxing Alexander and making it seem like he was levels above Alexander. Since this win, Khan’s support for the Mayweather fight has elevated and the question was asked to Mayweather which he contradictorily responded that Khan the fight ‘holds no weight’ because Khan is not a household name. This is clearly not true – as Khan has one of largest fan base in Boxing – just to put it in context – Khan has approximately 1.5 million twitter fans which is similar to the amount that Manny Pacquiao has on Twitter. Khan has fans in the UK (where he was born), Pakistan (his ethnicity), and across many Muslims countries (because he’s one of the few Muslim boxers that has made it to this level).

Question is, why is Mayweather avoiding this fight? Well, stylistically – it’s commonly agreed amongst many fans, commentators and boxers that Khan does pose something which Floyd has not faced throughout his career – from his height, reach, speed, size, combinations, work rate and stamina. When was the last time Mayweather fought an opponent with those attributes? We have learnt that the powerful brawlers with a ‘come forward’ of today do not pose a threat to Mayweather due to his boxing ability. Contrarily, Khan has been troubled by the powerful boxers in the past due to his lack of discipline, focus, and defense (which now seem to be becoming less of an issue since he’s been with Virgil Hunter). However, when was the last time Khan was out-boxed? At the Olympics final by the legendary Mario Kindelan when Khan was 17 where Khan later went onto avenge his loss. As previously mentioned, due to Khan’s attributes – he is very difficult to outbox unless he gets hurt as seen previously. But since his move to Virgil Hunter – Khan has looked much more organized and focused whereas with Freddie Roach, his styled seemed to be based on throwing as much punches as possible without much thought behind them. In addition, Floyd is not known to possess KO type power which is what makes this fight very interesting.

It may seem like this article has been ‘anti-Floyd Mayweather’ – but it’s far from it. I have been a Mayweather Fan since his days at featherweight, but more importantly – I am a fan of the sport of Boxing. I want to see the best fight the best. It’s clear by Mayweathers skillset that it would be no surprise if he beats both Pacquiao and Khan but until it actually it happens, it’s all hypothetical and it’s in Mayweathers power to make it a reality.

I do understand, Floyd Mayweather interest is making as much money as possible. Then I ask, why is he avoiding fights that will make him the most money? Floyd has said he wants to fight on 02/05/2015. Manny Pacquiao and Amir Khan seemed to be the only likely opponents. Recently, there have been rumors that Floyd has tried to lure Cotto away from his potential fight with Canelo and into a rematch. For the sake of Mayweathers legacy – I hope he fights Khan and Manny Pacquiao in his remaining two fights in his contract with showtime. Let’s see what 2015 holds for us.



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