By Scott Gilfoid: British welterweight Amir Khan thinks Floyd Mayweather Jr has taken the easy path for his next fight by taking on 36-year-old WBO 147 pound champion Manny Pacquiao for his fight on May 2nd rather than facing himself.
Khan thinks his performance in beating former two division world champion Devon Alexander last December may have scared off the two superstars from fighting him. Khan thinks that Pacquiao and Mayweather have both slipped in the last six years since the first time they attempted to negotiate a fight with one another.
Khan notes that Pacquiao has been beaten twice in the last three years, while Mayweather took a lot of heavy shots in his recent two fights against Marcos Maidana.
“He [Mayweather] is taking the easy route but boxing is a business and obviously he is going to do what makes for sense for him financially,” Khan said via thesun.co.uk. “My strong performance against Devon Alexander has made some of the opponents think twice about taking me on. Mayweather has probably chosen to fight Pacquiao because it’s an easier fight.”
It looks like Khan doesn’t seem to realize yet that he’s not a huge draw in the United States in terms of bringing in high ratings and selling a lot of tickets for his fights. Mayweather recently pointed that out in explaining why he’s not particularly interested in fighting the 28-year-old Khan.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzoRSaImPWI
Mayweather said that Khan’s last fight against Devon Alexander sold only 4,000 tickets, and that was not a good sign. He doesn’t see Khan as a recognizable name in the United States, and that’s why he chose not to face him.
Mayweather is finishing up his career, and he wants to make sure that the guys he fights from this point on are big draws in the United States. Khan obviously isn’t a draw yet, and you can make a strong argument that he never will be if he continues to face the kind of opposition he’s been fighting since he was knocked out by Danny Garcia in 2012. Since that loss, Khan has been taking the safe route with him facing weak opposition rather than him stepping it back up and facing the best. As such, it’s kept Khan from establishing himself as a big name in the United States.
“We came very close to securing the fight between both Manny and Mayweather – particularly Manny,” Khan said. “I was in a good position and I could have fought either one of them.”
I think Khan is kidding himself if he thinks he came close to getting a fight against either Mayweather or Pacquiao. If the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight didn’t take place, Mayweather would have almost surely fought Miguel Cotto, a popular middleweight who has a proven track record as a pay-per-view star. As for Pacquiao, he likely would have fought Top Rank fighter Jessie Vargas. He’s one of Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum’s stable fighters.
Khan really needs to start facing some quality fighters that have actual punching power and skills. He’s been fighting old names, smaller fighters or ones with no power since his loss to Danny Garcia. If Khan wants the Mayweather or Pacquiao fights, then he needs to stop playing it safe and take on Kell Brook, Keith Thurman, Marcos Maidana [again] or Lucas Matthysse.
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