By Scott Gilfoid: Just when you thought that Amir Khan’s bad luck couldn’t have gotten any worse in terms of getting high profile fights, Khan is saying that he’s had no response with former IBF light welterweight champion Lamont Peterson and former WBC 140lb champion Danny Garcia in his attempts to get rematches with both of them.
Khan was beaten by Peterson by a narrow 12 round decision in 2011, and knocked out by Danny Garcia in the 4th round in their fight in 2012. Since then, Khan’s opposition has been less than impressive.
In the last couple of years, Khan has been in heavy pursuit of a big money fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr., but he’s had zero luck in luring the talented American into the ring. Indeed, Mayweather has passed Khan up four times in going after two fights against Marcos Maidana, one fight against Manny Pacquiao and now fighting Andre Berto. Khan just can’t get that money fight against Mayweather no matter what he tries doing. Trash talking hasn’t worked, and neither has Khan’s wins over Carlos Molina, Julio Diaz, Devon Alexander, Chris Algieri, and Luis Collazo.
“Yes, 100 per cent, I’d love to have a rematch with Garcia or [Lamont] Petersen. It won’t happen though. I would love it but when they’ve been sounded out about it I’ve had no response,” Khan said via sport360.com. “Last few fights as well, Garcia’s not looked the fighter he once was. He was on fire a couple of years ago, beating myself, Zab Judah and Erik Morales but he’s struggled lately.”
I don’t see any difference between the Danny Garcia that beat Erik Morales twice and the Garcia that has struggled against the likes of Mauricio Herrera and Lamont Peterson. There’s no difference. Garcia struggled in the past against Judah and in his first fight against Morales. You could tell even back then that Garcia wasn’t a great fighter, and would get beaten against certain types of fighters.
We kind of have to take Khan’s word when he says he failed to get any response from Peterson and Danny Garcia for rematches. My impression was that those two fighters were very interested in facing Khan again in rematches. But if they weren’t interested, then that makes Khan’s job easier because it narrows down the field of fighters that he has to worry about at 147.
If Garcia and Peterson don’t want to fight Khan again, then the only guys that Khan has to worry about in the welterweight division are Errol Spence Jr., Manny Pacquiao, Tim Bradley, Brandon Rios, Shawn Porter, Diego Chaves, Marcos Maidana, Keith Thurman and Kell Brook. Since Pacquiao, Chaves, Rios and Bradley are all with Top Rank, it pretty much rules out any chances of Khan getting a fight against any of them for the remainder of his career. That just leaves Thurman, Maidana, Spence, Brook and Porter.
I think it’s safe to say that you can remove Maidana’s name from the list as well, because there are extreme doubts whether he’ll ever fight again. He’s blown up in weight something fierce after getting two huge paydays against Mayweather. With the money that Maidana made in those fights, he never has to fight again if he doesn’t want to. He can live really well in Argentina. That means that Khan really only has to worry about Brook, Spence, Thurman and Porter. That’s only four fighters. Since Spence isn’t well-known, I’m guessing that will be used as an excuse for Khan never facing him, because by the time that Spence does become well-known in the next 5-6 years, Khan will be in his early 30s, and I doubt he’ll still be fighting at that point. Khan has already said that he would retire early rather than let his career drag on late.
Khan just needs to take the fight against Brook while he still has the option of getting that fight. The money that he’ll make against Brook will be really good. Even if Khan loses the fight, which is likely, he’ll have all that money to live off of.
Obviously, there will be a rematch between Khan and Brook, and I can see them both making a ton of money from those two fights. I mean, I don’t think Khan or Brook will make the kind of money that former IBF/WBA/WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch got for his two fights against George Groves, because the purse split between Khan and Brook will be a lot closer to 50-50 than the Froch-Groves purse split from their two fights. That means that we won’t be seeing Khan and Brook making $15 million from one fight. I think they’ll both get somewhere along the line of $7 million each for their fight, which is very good money.
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