By Scott Gilfoid: Amir Khan (30-3, 19 KOs) will be back in the ring this Friday night against Chris Algieri (20-1, 8 KOs) on Spike TV on Premier Boxing Champions from the Barclay Center in Brooklyn, New York. Khan believes that he can pretty much wrap up a nice little payday fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. for September if he can look impressive in beating the 31-year-old Algieri.
Khan has been put in the perfect position for him to shine in this fight. Algieri can’t punch to save his life, is easy to hit, doesn’t have a great chin, and is coming off of dreadfully one-sided 12 round unanimous decision to Manny Pacquiao in November of 2014.
Algieri showed in that fight that he couldn’t deal with Pacquiao’s fast hands. The reason Algieri survived was because he stayed in motion for the entire 12 rounds, and Pacquiao couldn’t corner him enough to finish him off after knocking him down six times in the fight.
“If it is a bad performance against Algieri then I don’t think it can happen, but if it’s very good it has to happen,” Khan said via Boxnation.com. “That is why this fight is so important and I have to look good.”
I have a feeling that Khan isn’t going to get the Mayweather fight even if he does look good. I don’t think Khan realizes how he needs to look for him to get the fight with Mayweather. For Khan to have a chance at getting a fight against Mayweather, he has to be willing to mix it up with Algieri the entire fight. He can’t fight defensively, he can’t hold, shove, run or pull down on Algieri’s head in this fight if he wants to get a fight against Mayweather.
Khan will need to stay in the pocket and prove that he can beat Algieri without running around the ring like he’s had a bucket of hot water poured on him like we saw in his last fight against Devon Alexander. I mean, Mayweather isn’t going to want to fight a runner like Khan, especially if he’s shoving, holding and yanking down on Algieri’s head 24/7 in their fight this Friday. For that matter, Khan is going to need to resist his urges to put Algieri into head-locks and he’s also going to need to avoid holding and hitting, which we’ve seen from Khan in his past fights. In other words, Khan is going to need to keep it clean and fight in exciting manner, not the ugly watch style that he’s had in recent years.
“I have the same team as Floyd and they have most probably thought leave Amir until after this fight and then we can sit down and talk,” Khan said. “I know interest in a Mayweather fight is there but I have to get past Algieri.”
I think Khan is totally dreaming. I doubt that Mayweather is thinking about a fight against Khan at all. Why would he bother fighting a guy that runs, holds and shoves when he can get guys that have exciting fighting styles who come to fight? Mayweather can fight an unbeaten guy like Danny Garcia and get as many PPV buys as he would against Khan. At least with Garcia, Mayweather wouldn’t have to chase him all around the ring trying to get him to actually fight.
Unless Khan goes life and death with Algieri, I don’t see Khan getting the fight against Mayweather in September. The thing is, Khan won’t fight Algieri in an exciting manner. He’s going to be fighting of the back foot like he did against Alexander and I think it’s going to be painfully boring to watch, about as exciting as watching wet paint dry.
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