(Photo credit: Naoki Fakuda) By Scott Gilfoid: Three days after struggling to beat Chris Algieri by a close decision, Amir Khan is waiting and hoping to get a call from Floyd Mayweather Jr. letting him know that he’s been selected for his next fight in September. Thus far, Khan hasn’t reported getting that call from Mayweather and all he can do is hope that he somehow gets lucky and is given that call.
In the meantime, Khan’s trainer Virgil Hunter, who may be on his way out, says that Khan would need to fight way over his head for him to have a chance of beating a talented fighter like Mayweather.
Hunter admits that Khan wouldn’t be able to match Mayweather’s ring IQ, and about the best thing he could hope for is to try and beat Mayweather on youthful energy rather than talent or with intelligence. With the way Hunter describes it, he doesn’t appear to think that Khan can pull off the victory.
Hunter would obviously still like to be a part of the fight, but right now it’s not looking good for the 28-year-old Khan after his poor performance against Algieri. Khan made Algieri look like a superstar in there.
The only reason Khan won was because Algieri failed to make adjustments in the second half of the fight by upping his work rate. If not for that, Khan would have lost and his career would have gone skittering downhill from there. Algieri would likely jump at the chance of a rematch with Khan, but that obviously isn’t going to happen in this lifetime. Khan is going to take his win, such as it is, fly fast in the opposite direction and hope he can improve against whoever his next opponent is.
“When it comes to Floyd, Amir will have to fight over his head, like [Buster] Douglas did against Mike Tyson,” Hunter said to the Dailymail.co.uk. “He will have to find a way to take it to another level altogether if he is to have a chance of winning.”
It goes without saying that Khan is going to need to fight over his head against Mayweather. We just saw Khan’s top end against Algieri, and it wasn’t good. He was held to basically a stalemate against Algieri. Khan had the hand speed advantage, but Algieri was stronger and landing the cleaner shots all night longer.
“As a young pup his [Khan] IQ will never match Floyd’s IQ, which comes from so much experience and repetition that his mind and body know instinctively how to work together,” Hunter said.
Mayweather was incredibly smart even when he first turned pro. It wasn’t because of experience and repetition like Hunter says. Mayweather always knew his way around a ring and it’s not something that Khan can duplicate through fighting frequently. If Khan doesn’t have it by his age, he’s never going to have it. Khan is in the prime of his career right now, and he’s never been someone who has been known for being a smart boxer. He’s always gotten himself in trouble in his fights by rushing forward and throwing wild combinations. His opponents would then nail him in between his combinations and hurt him. A smart fighter would never fight like Khan has.
“If the fight does happen and Amir can handle the pressure of an event of that magnitude, then I am confident he can use his youth and speed to give a good account of himself,” Hunter said.
If the fight happens, I see Khan getting totally clowned by Mayweather and likely knocked out with a shot that he doesn’t see coming. If slower fighters like Breidis Prescott and Danny Garcia were able to KO Khan with shots that he didn’t see coming, Mayweather is going to have a very easy time scoring a stoppage. But I don’t see Khan getting a fight against Mayweather because his performance was so bad against Algieri that it basically rules out a fight between the two of them.
To get a fight against Mayweather, you need a great win over a good opponent. Algieri isn’t a real big name, so Khan blew it right there. But on top of that, Khan couldn’t even look good against a fighter in Algieri’s class, which is where Khan really blew it.
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