Khan: Mayweather and Pacquiao would have been easier than Canelo

By Boxing News - 02/12/2016 - Comments

khan545By Dan Ambrose: Amir Khan (31-3, 19 KOs) thinks that he took the harder road by signing on to challenge WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (46-1-1, 32 KOs) than if he were to have faced Floyd Mayweather Jr. or Manny Pacquiao for his next fight.

Those two superstars rejected Khan as an opponent, and instead they went with other fighters. Mayweather ended his career last September against Andre Berto, whereas Pacquiao is fighting Tim Bradley (33-1-1, 13 KOs) on April 9. Bradley just vacated his WBO 147lb title, so that takes a lot of the interest out of the fight for me.

“I’m going to be a little bit smaller than Canelo,” Khan said. “Canelo is known as a dangerous guy that not a lot of people want to fight and a lot of people avoid. I am one guy that said, ‘I’ll fight.’ I could have taken the easy route. If I had taken Mayweather and Pacquiao, it would have been an easier fight. With the weight, this makes it more exciting though. People expect me to walk in there and get knocked out. I don’t see it going that way. I think I’m going to win this fight by being really skilled and smart. We can’t make any mistakes with Canelo. When you go into the ring with someone as skilled and as strong as Canelo, it’s only going to keep me on my A-game and be focused all throughout the fight. All throughout the fight, I’m going to be focused on my game plan,” Khan said.
In some ways, Khan might be right about him taking the harder road by facing Canelo.

Mayweather doesn’t have the punching power or the size to knock Khan out. At best, Mayweather could beat Khan by a decision, but it would have been a tough fight for Mayweather. Khan might have had too much speed for him. As for Pacquiao, Khan would have the speed, jab, size and mobility to out-box him just like Mayweather did. Khan would have the blueprint from that fight to study, and that would be a huge benefit.

Khan thinks that Mayweather and Pacquiao both turned him down because he was considered too “dangerous” for them both. It’s hard to argue with that. I think Khan’s fighting style was considered to be too tough for them, so they went in another direction. It’s hard not to say that Pacquiao and Mayweather ducked Khan when you see the guys that they chose to fight. There was no reason at all for Pacquiao to fight Bradley for a third time, because his last fight against him in 2014 should have closed the door in rivalry.

There’s nothing else to learn from watching them fight again other than they both seem to be looking for different things. Pacquiao seems to be looking for a safe fight and an easy payday. Bradley appears to be looking for the payday. Bradley isn’t going to win the fight and it’s just disappointing that the two of them are going to waste time fighting each other again.



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