By Scott Gilfoid: Britain’s Amir Khan (30-3, 19 KOs) says he won’t be fighting on the undercard of the May 2nd mega-fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr and Manny Pacquiao. Khan says the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight doesn’t need a “great undercard” in order for it to be successful.
The fact that Khan isn’t fighting on the undercard has to be construed as a real negative for the 28-year-old Khan, and a clear sign that he’s not going to be in the picture in a fight against either of these guys.
Normally when an opponent is being built up for these two fighters, they fight on their undercard in order to build the fight up more. But with Khan not on the card, it really hurts his standing in getting one of these two superstars.
I won't be fighting on the Mayweather v Pacquioa card. The fight sells it self. Doesn't really need a great undercard. It's a massive fight.
— Amir Khan (@AmirKingKhan) March 9, 2015
Having Khan on the undercard of the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight would be a huge positive for Khan’s career, because he would be seen by millions of boxing fans with many of the fans being casual fans. As long as Khan didn’t lose the fight or mess things up by running, holding, shoving and putting his opponent in a head-lock all night, he’d come out of the fight with a much bigger name than he did going into it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQ0hgI0E75Y
The American boxing fans would finally know who Khan is, and he could then use that to try and get a fight against Mayweather or Pacquiao. But like I said, Khan would have to fight well, win, and he’d have to do it cleanly by not resorting to the tactics we’ve seen from him in the past in fights.
Further, Khan would also need to fight a quality fighter, and not just another obscure old guy or one of the light-hitting contenders that he’s been facing recently. I mean, if Khan were to face someone like Keith Thurman or Marcos Maidana, he could win a lot of fans if he were beat them without running, holding, shoving and putting them in head-locks. A win over one of those guys would be huge if it were to take place on the Mayweather-Pacquiao card.
Khan recently said that he wants to fight in May. However, it might be difficult for him to find an open date that month on Showtime to where he’s not going to be getting crowded out by other fights. The same goes for June.
Khan can’t fight on May 2nd or May 9th due to other big fights taking place on those dates.
Khan’s adviser Al Haymon needs to break his pattern of putting Khan in with soft guys and start matching him against quality guys again. It’s been three years since Khan fought someone that you can call a good fighter, and those have been lost years for Khan, because he hasn’t become more popular due to the weak opposition that Haymon keeps putting him in with.
Haymon needs to put Khan in with Kell Brook, Maidana, Thurman, Danny Garcia or Lucas Matthysse. If Khan doesn’t have the talent to beat those guys then so be it. But, he’s not going to become more popular if Haymon keeps feeding him weak fodder fight after fight, because the casual and hardcore boxing fans aren’t being fooled by these weak fights. They aren’t impressed with Khan enough to become fans, because he’s not being put in against compelling opponents.
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