Khan: I have pressure to do a better job beating Algieri than Pacquiao did

By Boxing News - 04/08/2015 - Comments

khan343444By Scott Gilfoid: Britain’s Amir Khan (30-3, 19 KOs) feels that he’s got a lot of heavy pressure on him for his May 30th fight against former WBO light welterweight champion Chris Algieri (20-1, 8 KOs). While it’s pretty much a given that Khan will win this fight due to his superior power, hand speed and experience at the pro level, he feels that his performance against the 31-year-old Algieri will be compared to that of Manny Paquiao’s performance.

Pacquiao defeated Aligeri by a 12 round unanimous decision last November in Macau, China. In that fight, Pacquiao knocked Algieri down six times and won every round. As such, for Khan to get anything from the Algieri fight, besides a boatload of money, he’s going to need to whip him like no tomorrow to show that he’s at the same level as Pacquiao.

“If Manny Pacquiao fought this guy just in his last fight and now he’s got the fight against Mayweather, what does that say?” Khan said via Fighthype.com. “That puts that pressure on me because now I have to do a better job than what Manny did.”

Well, there’s no question that boxing fans will be comparing Khan’s performance to that of Pacquiao’s against the same guy. Further, Khan’s fight against Algieri will likely be seen by a lot more fans in the United States compared to Pacquiao’s fight against him. The reason for that is because Khan-Algieri will very likely be televised on NBC on Premier Boxing Champions (PBC), and that means that a lot of fans will be watching it because it’s free, no premium TV.

Pacquiao-Algieri didn’t bring in that many pay-per-view buys on HBO PPV, and it wasn’t a fight that captured the attention from the U.S fans to make them want to dump their money in seeing the fight. Khan will no doubt be seen by well over a million fans on PBC, and it’s quite possible it could be seen by well over 2 million fans.

That’s a lot of eyeballs that will be seeing Khan fight and comparing him to how Pacquiao did if they saw the fight in the first place. If this is the first time for some fans to see Khan fight, then he’s certainly picked the right showcase opponent out for him to look good against, because Algieri doesn’t have the kind of punching power to worry Khan like we’ve seen from other guys in the past.

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“Even though an Algieri fight is not confirmed, that fight would be on primetime TV in the U.S., and it makes me a lot of money,” Khan said. “It’s making me a lot of money and brings me a lot more exposure, so wouldn’t I be stupid to say no to a fight like that? This is a business.”

The Algieri fight isn’t making Khan a lot of money compared to the money he could get fighting the likes of Kell Brook, Floyd Mayweather Jr and Manny Pacquiao, but it’s making him decent money given the level of opponent that he’s facing. I mean, there’s not a huge demand for fans to see Khan vs. Algieri. As such, it’s not a big money fight for Khan, but it is a safe fight. So whatever money Khan can get for a fight that brings him virtually no risk, then it’s all gravy for Khan. He’s getting an easy payday against a guy that doesn’t have much in the way of punching power.

Khan had the chance to fight Brook next, but he doesn’t want to take that fight next. Khan’s adviser sees the Algieri fight as the better one for him right now. Logically, a fight against Algieri gives fans a chance to see how Khan does against an opponent that Pacquiao just finished beating. The idea is that even if Mayweather and Pacquiao continue to not want to face Khan, he can still show boxing fans how he ranks with those two superstars if he can easily beat one of their opponents like Algieri.

It’s a good fight for Algieri because in the absence of this fight against Khan, he would likely receive a lot of pressure to face former WBO lightweight champion Terence Crawford. That’s not a winnable fight for Algieri, and it’s not a fight that will likely give him much of a payday.



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