Khan vs. Algieri won’t be televised on Showtime, network passes on the fight

By Boxing News - 04/02/2015 - Comments

algieri1546By Scott Gilfoid: Showtime has decided to pass on televising the May 30th fight between Amir Khan (30-3, 19 KOs) and former WBO light welterweight champion Chris Algieri (20-1, 8 KOs) in New York. Dan Rafael is reporting that Showtime chose not to televise the Khan-Algieri fight.

You can only guess why. Showtime has been burned a number of times in the past in televising mismatches, and it’s possible that they might not have wanted to purchase this fight, which would appear to be a mismatch on paper with Khan likely to be heavily favored.

“I’m told Khan-Algieri will NOT be on @SHOsports. The network passed, I was told. #boxing,” Rafael said on his twitter.

The Khan-Algieri fight will take place at 147 pounds instead of 140, which is the weight class that Algieri fights in. Why is Khan fighting a light hitting light welterweight like Algieri? Only he and his promoters and adviser knows the answer to that question.

Khan has been receiving a lot of pressure from boxing fans for him to step up a level and face IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook for his IBF title. It’s a fight that all of Britain wants to see. However, Khan has no interest in taking that fight, as he sees Brook as someone who doesn’t have a large fan base in the United States.

Khan wants to fight Mayweather and Pacquiao, and until then, Brook is going to have to wait a while. If Mayweather and Pacquiao never decide to fight Khan, then he’s going to have to take the fight with Brook.

With Showtime not televising the Khan-Algieri fight, it’s only logical to assume that the fight will be televised on HBC on the Permier Boxing Champions (PBC). It’s a great showcase fight for Khan. I mean, Algieri can’t punch, and he doesn’t have the speed to make it a real fight.

The guys that give Khan a ton of trouble are punchers like Marcos Maidana, Breidis Precott and Danny Garcia. With Khan now fighting at welterweight, he would have problems against Maidana, Kell Brook, Brandon Rios, Keith Thurman, Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather.

Algieri was badly beaten by Manny Pacquiao last November in losing a 12 round unanimous decision in Macao, China.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mrut8_rxmV0

It’s safe to say that you can rule out Brook, Rios, Thurman and Maidana as future opponents for Khan. I don’t see him fighting any of those guys in the foreseeable future. Khan will get matched against Mayweather or Pacquiao if either of those two ever show interest in fighting him, which I kind of doubt. But facing those guys and getting beaten by them wouldn’t be nearly as big a deal for Khan as it would be if he were to lose to Maidana, Brook, Rios, Thurman or Rios Garcia.

In facing Mayweather or Pacquiao, Khan would get a tremendous payday, a ton of attention from casual boxing fans, and he would be given the chance to show off for as long as the fight would last.

It’s a win-win situation for Khan. The only problem is Khan hasn’t done much to increase his popularity in the last three years by facing little known non-punchers. He’d faced four less than popular non-punchers during the past three years, and now he’s facing another weak puncher in Chris Algieri on May 30th.

I hate to say it but it’s just another showcase fight for Khan to make him look good. Yeah, the soft match-making is working in terms of keeping Khan winning, but it’s also keeping him from becoming a popular enough fighter to get Mayweather or Pacquiao.

Khan needs to start facing better known opposition that can punch hard enough to make his fights exciting once again. His fights stopped being exciting when he start facing soft opposition three years ago. He’s had nothing but easy fights in the last three years against guys with no punching power, limited talent and inflated records in some cases.



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