Khan: I can’t cry over the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight

By Boxing News - 01/30/2015 - Comments

khan53By Scott Gilfoid: Former IBF/WBA 140 pound belt holder Amir Khan (30-3, 19 KOs) still feels he deserves to face Floyd Mayweather Jr or Manny Pacquiao if they fail to face each other next. Khan thinks his wins over Luis Collazo and Devon Alexander in his last two fights is enough to make him worthy of facing one of those two stars.

Unfortunately for Khan, it looks like Mayweather and Pacquiao will wind up facing each other and won’t need a backup option like Khan to fight.

YouTube video

The idea that Khan has proven himself with his wins over Collazo and Alexander is a subjective one. While some boxing fans think those victories are enough for Khan to get fights against Mayweather and Pacquiao on a silver platter, other boxing fans think Khan needs to prove himself against Kell Brook, Keith Thurman, Lucas Matthysse, Danny Garcia and Marcos Maidana before he rates for a fight against one of the bigger stars of the sport. I find myself in the latter category of Khan needing still to prove a heck of a lot before he truly deserves a fight against Mayweather or Pacquiao.

“I can’t cry over it. If it happens, I am a boxing fan and I will be interested in it. I will be a little upset if I don’t get one of them because I think I have proved myself. But if they fight each other, I am fine,” Khan said to Dan Rafael of ESPN.com.

Even if Khan wasn’t fine, he’d still need to grin and bear it that Pacquiao and Mayweather aren’t fighting him. That’s just the way it is. Khan is going to find it next to impossible to get a fight against Pacquiao anyway just because of his manager Al Haymon, and Mayweather doesn’t seem interested in facing a runner like Khan.

The cold reality is that Khan is probably going to need to be content with fighting Brook, Maidana and Thurman if he wants interesting fights in the future, because those are the only guys I can see Khan getting. He might as well face them now rather than wait a long time while fighting more Collazo and Alexander type opponents.

Khan says he prefers facing Mayweather than Pacquiao because he thinks fans would be more impressed with him facing Mayweather due to his unbeaten record. Khan has also said repeatedly in the past that he feels he matches up better against Mayweather than Pacquiao due to Mayweather’s fighting style.

“I think it could maybe a bigger fight because Floyd is undefeated and he is pound-for-pound No. 1,” Khan said. “No disrespect to Manny but I think the Mayweather fights shines a little bit more.”

I don’t think it would be a big fight if Khan were to face either Mayweather or Pacquiao. Khan doesn’t have a big enough name in the United States for either of those fights to bring in big number. I could see the pay-per-view numbers being similar to Mayweather’s fights against Robert Guerrero, or Pacquiao’s fights against Brandon Rios and Chris Algieri.



Comments are closed.