By Scott Gilfoid: Like all the other top welterweights in the division, Amir Khan (31-3, 19 KOs) is waiting to hear the news from Floyd Mayweather Jr. (48-0, 26 KOs) if he’s got the fight or not for September 12th. Khan has been pining away for the Mayweather fight for ages, and he’s now at the moment of truth about to find out if he’s going to hit the lottery or will be passed over for perhaps the final time.

Khan says his plan B option will be a big fight in November or December of this year. Khan says it’ll be a big fight, but it won’t be Kell Brook. Khan is saving that fight for later. He wants the Brook fight to continue to build over time. Needless to say, that’s Khan’s ace in the hole, or nuclear button he’ll push when things start looking bleak for him in terms of paydays.

The Brook fight will always be there for Khan, even if his career goes belly up. He can count on Brook throwing him a bone, because it’s not as if Brook has any interesting opponents in his weight class in the UK for him to get big money against unless he wants to bulk up to middleweight and face the likes of George Groves if he can lure him down in weight.

“If I don’t get the September fight I’d like to be back out again in November or December like normal,” Khan said to sport360.com. “I’ll be looking at those dates instead. But if I don’t get the Mayweather fight there is still no chance whatsoever that I will fight Kell Brook before the end of the year. It will have to be a big one and I’ll leave it to Al Haymon. Al will give me a call this week hopefully to let me know who it will be. It will probably be back in the States again.”

Khan says “it will have to be a big one” in talking about his next opponent, but I don’t think that’s realistic. I mean, we’ve seen the guys that Khan’s adviser Al Haymon has been matching against him for the past couple of years, and I don’t think for a second that anything is going to change in that regard. If Khan is still facing weak punchers after three solid years since his knockout loss to Danny Garcia in 2012, then it’s reasonable to assume that we’re going to see that pattern continue into the future.

As far as Khan’s plan-B opponent goes, I see it pretty much along the same lines as his last opponent Chris Algieri. I can see Haymon selecting the likes of Lamont Peterson for Khan to fight, I really do. Peterson isn’t a big puncher, he works with Haymon, and he has a previous win over Khan. I would be willing to bet that Peterson gets the fight with Khan if Mayweather decides he’s not interested in facing Khan.

Khan thinks that Mayweather is pulling his chain by making him wait this long before making his decision. Mayweather only has 8 ½ weeks to go before his September 12th fight, and he normally has picked out his opponents by this point because it hurts the pay-per-view sales to wait this long before making an announcement for the fight.

Mayweather won’t be able to do a press tour of any kind if he announces his opponent now. But if he chooses to sell the fight by saying it’s the last one of his career, then he might be able to bring in good numbers even if he makes Khan or some other contender wait until 3 to 4 weeks before the fight before he lets them know they’ve got the fight. What would be really bad is if Mayweather waits until one week before the fight before announcing his opponent. That would be cruel to the fans, cruel to his opponent and cruel to himself if he does that.