By Scott Gilfoid: Not satisfied with all the options on the table for him in 2017, Amir Khan appears to be getting greedy by saying he now wants to fight Puerto Rican star Miguel Cotto at welterweight. Khan wants the 36-year-old Cotto to come down to 147 to fight him. Khan might not realize this, but he’s not in the position to ask a pay-per-view fighter like Cotto to melt down to welterweight to fight him.
With the kind of punching power Cotto still has, he would have a very good chance of knocking Khan out cold like he was in his last fight against Saul Canelo Alvarez last May. That was a scary knockout of Khan (31-4, 19 KOs) with him getting knocked clean out in the 6th round by a right hand from the 26-year-old Canelo (48-1-1, 34 KOs) in their fight on HBO PPV.
The Canelo vs. Khan fight brought in 600,000 pay-per-view buys on HBO. Those are pretty good numbers. They’re obviously down from the 900,000 PPV buys the Cotto vs. Canelo fight brought in on HBO in November 2015.
The obvious question to ask Khan is what makes him think the U.S boxing fans would be willing to pay to see him fight Cotto after the way he was knocked out by Canelo. Khan hasn’t fought since. When you’ve been knocked out the way Khan was by Canelo, you’re supposed to rebuild yourself in the eyes of the boxing public by beating some good fighters. You don’t normally get thrown into a huge PPV fight as a reward for you being knocked unconscious the way that Khan was by Canelo.
Khan has two possibilities already on his plate for big money fights in 2017 by him having the opportunity to face IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook and the winner of the March 4 fight between Danny Garcia and Keith Thurman. Those are two nice paydays for Khan. If he’s able to get a third fight in 2017 against Cotto, it would be a great years for the 30-year-old Khan.
Whether he can get the Cotto fight might come down to whether Khan is willing to fight him at a catchweight or move up all the way to 154. That’s if there’s any interest on Cotto’s part in fighting Khan, which I would highly doubt. Cotto has a rematch against Saul Canelo Alvarez in December. If Cotto loses to Khan, he can forget about the Canelo payday, and believe me, that’s a much bigger money fight than a match against the fleet of foot Khan.
Cotto (40-5, 33 KOs) already has a mismatch scheduled for next month against James Kirkland (32-2, 28 KOs) on February 25 on HBO PPV. Cotto-Khan would likely invite a lot more negative feedback for the former four division world champion Cotto than he’s already receiving for fighting a BADLY over-matched Kirkland. The Cotto-Kirkland fight is likely going to be a total disaster when it comes to PPV sales unless some of the old timer boxing fans can help make it a successful event. The younger fans likely won’t know who Kirkland is other than being the guy that was knocked out in three rounds by Saul Canelo Alvarez in 2015.
Khan told the media at Fighthype that he wants them to get Cotto to fight him at 147:
”That’s a fight that could happen at 147,” said Khan. ”Ask Cotto if he would come down to 147 and take the fight. He’ll make more money fighting me than fighting anyone else. I could bring a name and also good numbers to the table,” said Khan.
Cotto vs. Khan is a fight that should have been scheduled for February 25 instead of the dreadful Cotto-Kirkland fight. I’m just wondering why Cotto didn’t think about that fight. Perhaps because of Khan’s vicious knockout loss to Canelo last May, it might have put him out of sight for a fight against Cotto. Further, Khan’s hand surgery obviously wouldn’t have helped him get a fight against Cotto, because he’s been talking about not being able to fight until April of 2017. Khan says he has to have a tune-up for April.
I don’t think Cotto is going to be in the risk taking mood to fight Khan after he gets done with the 32-year-old Kirkland on February 25 in their fight at the Ford Center at The Star, in Frisco, Texas. If Cotto’s fight against Kirkland bombs as bad as many boxing writers and fans think it will, I doubt that Cotto will want to take any additional risks for mismatches until he faces Canelo in December. Moreover, HBO might not have any dates for fights like Cotto vs. Khan. Maybe they will, but I tend to doubt it. That’s not a big fight on paper. If Cotto were willing to fight Khan in the UK, it could pull in some PPV money on Sky Box Office. The British boxing fans are willing to pay to see mismatches like Kell Brook vs. Gennady Golovkin and Tony Bellew vs. David Haye. I suppose they might be up for a mismatch between Khan and Cotto. On paper, it’s a terrible fight, I have to say. When you’ve been knocked out like Khan was by Canelo, it’s not the smartest thing for Khan to sign up for a fight against another big puncher in Cotto. I’m just saying. I think Khan needs to cash out against Brook while he still can. That’s the bigger money fight than a Khan-Cotto fight. I think Khan loses to Cotto and to the winner of the Danny Garcia vs. Keith Thurman fight. Khan should steer clear of both of those fights until AFTER he faces Brook. Whether those fighters would still want to fight Khan if he gets blasted out by Brook is the important question. My guess is no.
