By Scott Gilfoid: Like most fighters, Amir Khan (30-3, 19 KOs) look good every time out so that he can impress boxing fans, and get the bigger fights. But in the case of his scheduled bout this Saturday against Chris Algieri (20-1, 8 KOs), Khan is worried about looking too good and potentially frightening away Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Khan wants to fight Mayweather in September this year in what would be Mayweather’s last fight of his career. Khan wants to be the one that sends Mayweather into retirement with a loss. But Khan thinks that if he looks too good against the light punching 31-year-old Algieri, he’ll not get the Mayweather fight.
“I know I have to impress to some extent,” Khan said via the Dailymail.co.uk. “But I’m worried about alarming Floyd with my speed.”
I think it’s more of a case of Mayweather not being worried about Khan’s speed or talent, but more so his lack of popularity in America. I mean, Khan failed to sell out the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada, for his last fight against Devon Alexander in December of last year. The Khan-Alexander had an attendance of only 7,768. That’s not too good if you’re thinking of Khan being a potential opponent for Mayweather. That showed pretty clearly that Khan isn’t a draw in the U.S.
Additionally, the Khan-Alexander fight only brought 762,000 views on Showtime. That’s not good either. Mayweather would likely be more than interested in facing Khan, but not if it means that his PPV buys are going to drop to a rock bottom number never seen before by Mayweather. He’s a businessman, and he’d likely be losing millions upon millions of dollars if he chose to fight Khan rather than someone who can attract fans like Danny Garcia, Miguel Cotto or Saul “Canelo” Alvarez.
Khan can look good or look bad against Algieri, but I don’t think it’s going to matter at all to Mayweather. He’s not going to fight a guy who can’t draw flies in the U.S. for his final fight. Mayweather is going to want to fight someone that can bring in bank, not someone who will turn fans away. Khan should just focus on looking as good as he possibly can, and avoid getting knocked out again like he has in the past.
If Khan does beat Algieri, he really needs to step up a level and fight someone with a real chance of knocking him out like Keith Thurman, Kell Brook or Marcos Maidana. If Khan does that, he might start winning some fans in America instead of staying where he’s at and not getting any more popular than he was when he first started fighting in the U.S five years ago in 2010.
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