Khan: Floyd was too scared to fight me

By Boxing News - 02/15/2016 - Comments

khan100By Allan Fox: Amir Khan (31-3, 19 KOs) says he was left with no other choice but to move up to the middleweight division to face WBC 160lb champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (46-1-1, 32 KOs) because no one wanted to fight him in the welterweight division. Khan says Floyd Mayweather Jr. was too afraid to fight him, and Manny Pacquiao and Danny Garcia didn’t want the fight either.

Khan says he only wanted the big fights, which is why he had to move up to middleweight to fight Canelo t a catch-weight of 155lbs on May 7 on HBO pay-per-view.

Khan might be right about Mayweather being afraid of taking the fight. When you see Mayweather taking on lesser fighters than Khan in Andre Berto, Robert Guerrero and Marcos Maidana [x 2], what are you left to think? Khan would have given Mayweather a bigger payday than those three fighters, and Showtime likely would have given the green light to the fight.

“We got very close to making that fight [against Mayweather] happen,” Khan said to TMZ.com. “To be honest with you, Floyd was too scared to fight me. I honestly have to say that. I did everything to make that fight happen. I spoke to my team. I even said I’d fight for free. I’d fight for nothing just to show the world ‘look, I’m better fighter than him.’ But he just didn’t want to fight me and took the easy way. The reason I had to move up in weight was because no one in my division wanted to fight me. Mayweather let me down. Pacquiao let me down. Danny Garcia let me down. So I’m in the position where people don’t want to fight me. No one wants to fight me. I’m in the position where I want the biggest fights. I’m WBC #1. There’s a lot of politics in the game. I’ve got my eye on one fight right now against Canelo. I’m going to be focusing on that style. God knows where I’ll go from there,” said Khan.

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Khan is wrong about no one wanting to fight him in the 147lb division. Obviously, IBF champion Kell Brook, WBA champion Keith “One Time” Thurman and Shawn Porter all likely would have accepted a fight with Khan in a second if it were offered to him. Tim Bradley wouldn’t likely take a fight against Khan because he’s not with the same promotional company as him with Top Rank. But even with the Bradley and Pacquiao fights not being possible, Khan could have easily taken Brook, Porter and Thurman.

The Brook fight would have given Khan a tremendous payday, perhaps even more than what he’ll be making against Canelo on 5/7. The difference is that a loss to Brook would have deeper ramifications for Khan than a loss to Canelo.

Losing to a fighter his own size would be a tougher defeat to swallow for Khan in the boxing world than it would if he were to get beaten by the much heavier Canelo, who could walk into the ring in the low 180s on May 7 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Losing to a fighter with a 20 pound weight advantage over you like Canelo might have wouldn’t be as bad of a loss than it would if Khan lost to Brook or one of the other welterweights.

It’s too bad that Mayweather didn’t take the fight against Khan because it would have been a good fight to see how the two fighters’ hand speed would work out against each other. It would be Mayweather’s first fight against a guy with blazing hand speed since his win over Zab Judah. It would also be a real test for Khan to see how he reacts to fighting a guy with speed almost as fast as his own. I could see Khan struggling with Mayweather’s speed and maybe even getting knocked out.

There’s always a chance that Mayweather could come back if Khan is able to beat Canelo. It would set up a situation where Mayweather could make a comeback to try and defeat Khan to win the WBC middleweight title. Mayweather hasn’t won a world title in the 160lb division yet, and this would give him a good chance to do that.



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