Khan says he won’t fight Mayweather now if asked

By Boxing News - 05/03/2016 - Comments

khan836By Patrick McHugh: With the big payday Amir Khan (31-3, 19 KOs) is getting to fight for a world title this Saturday night against WBC 160lb champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (46-1-1, 32 KOs), the 29-year-old Khan says he wouldn’t fight Floyd Mayweather Jr. if he came back now and asked to fight him. Khan sees the aging 39-year-old Mayweather as a bitter person longing for the limelight now that he’s quickly being forgotten in the minds of boxing fans. Mayweather has been replaced by Canelo and Gennady Golovkin.

Khan is said to be getting $13 million for the Canelo fight on Saturday. That money gives Khan the freedom to turn up his nose at a fight against Mayweather if it were ever offered to him, which it likely never will. Mayweather doesn’t fancy a fight against Khan, who has blistering hand and foot speed.

Khan says he didn’t like the way Mayweather treated him by not agreeing to fight him. Mayweather gave Khan hope for a fight at one point in the past several years ago by asking fans to pick his next opponent.

When the fans unanimously selected Khan in a poll on the Mayweather Promotions website, Mayweather ignored the poll and chose to fight Marcos Maidana instead, a fighter that was arguably not nearly as popular as Khan worldwide. Khan thinks that the only reason that Mayweather has popped up lately to start talking about a potential comeback to the sport is because he doesn’t like the fact that the boxing world isn’t talking about him now that he’s no longer fighting.

The fans are talking about the Canelo-Khan fight. By dropping hints right now about a comeback, Mayweather is taking away some of the limelight from that fight. Khan suspects that’s what Mayweather’s intentions are and he sees him as yesterday’s news and no longer relevant.

If Khan beats Canelo on Saturday night in their fight, he will need to fight Canelo a second time due to the rematch clause Canelo’s promoters at Golden Boy Promotions inserted into the contract for the fight.

“He messed me around, so I’d probably treat him the same way – I don’t think I’d take that fight,” Khan said as quoted by boxing247.com. “Floyd’s probably missing having his picture on the MGM. Mayweather’s feeling like no-one’s talking about him, that he’s old news, and maybe that’s why he’s trying to get everyone supporting him again by saying, ‘I want to make a comeback.’”

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I don’t think Khan needs to worry too much about Mayweather approaching him for a fight. Mayweather told Showtime last Saturday night that he’s interested in fighting WBC welterweight champion Danny Garcia. Mayweather showed no interest in fighting Keith Thurman, Shawn Porter or Gennady Golovkin. Of all the names that were brought up, only Danny Garcia’s name interested in Mayweather.

If that’s the fight that Mayweather takes instead of Khan, Canelo, Golovkin or Manny Pacquiao, then you can argue that Mayweather has lost the ability to judge the fights the fans want to see. There won’t be enough interest in a Mayweather vs. Danny Garcia fight right now to keep the cable company that signs Mayweather to a 9-figure deal from having to absorb a tremendous loss of money off the fight. Mayweather-Garcia won’t bring in the kind of money to cover Mayweather receiving a payday of nine figures.

Khan vs. Canelo could bring in a lot PPV buys on HBO. The city of Las Vegas is excited about the fight, and it’s receiving more attention than Canelo’s last fight against 35-year-old Miguel Cotto last November. That fight brought in 900,000 PPV buys on HBO. You would have to assume that the Canelo-Khan fight will eclipse that number by a considerable amount when the PPV numbers are tallied up.