Amir Khan vs. Chris Algieri a possibility for May

By Boxing News - 03/29/2015 - Comments

1-pac-algieri.fn_.02.500w-420x251Eddie Hearn, the promoter for IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook, says he’s hearing that former WBO light welterweight champion Chris Algieri (20-1, 8 KOs) is a name that is being mentioned for Amir Khan (30-3, 19 KOs) for his next fight.

Khan, 28, plans on fighting at the end of May. He’d been talking about wanting to fight a big name like Floyd Mayweather Jr, Manny Pacquiao or Miguel Cotto, but none of those fighters showed any interest in fighting him.

It was then thought that Khan would at least fight someone good, and someone with some power, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen.

“He’s [Khan] looking for an opponent; he’s talking about Algieri. Fight Brook for five times the money and for a world title,” Hearn said via IFL TV. “We got to move on, Marquez, Rios, and Thurman. He doesn’t have to fight his mandatory for at least a year. We can pick and choose who we want to fight.”

Khan-Algieri doesn’t make sense. It’s not a big fight, and it’s one that is far below some of the other fights he can get against the likes of Keith Thurman, Brook, Marcos Maidana, Lucas Matthysse or Adrien Broner.

Algieri doesn’t have a big fan base in the U.S, so the fight doesn’t make sense at all. If Khan wants to increase his popularity enough in the U.S to get Mayweather or Pacquiao to fight him, then I don’t think Algieri is the guy he should be fighting.

Like most of the guys that Khan has fought in the last three years since being knocked out by Danny Garcia in 2012, Algieri doesn’t have any punching power to speak of. He’s coming off of a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision loss to Pacquiao last November, a fight in which Algieri was knocked down six times. It was so one-sided a fight that it was just sad to watch. No one gave Algieri any chance against Pacquiao ahead of time, and rightly so. It was just soft match-making for Pacquiao, and the fight proved to be a real stinker unless you like totally one-sided fights that lack any suspense at all.

Khan vs. Algieri might have been a decent fight had it taken place a year ago when Algieri was still unbeaten, and when Khan was still fighting at 140. But the fight doesn’t make any sense at all. If Algieri is supposed to be the guy that will get Khan a fight against Mayweather or Pacquiao, I think Khan is going in the wrong direction.

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Algieri would just be another light hitting puncher for Khan. Some boxing fans believe that Khan’s management is purposefully keeping him away from big punchers in order to make sure that he doesn’t get knocked out again. Khan has already been stopped twice in his career against Breidis Prescott and Danny Garcia. Khan barely escaped the Maidana fight after getting badly wobbled in the 10th round. Some referees no doubt would have halted the fight in the 10th round of that fight due to all the staggering Khan was doing after he got nailed.



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