By William Mackay: As strange as it may seem now, World Boxing Association light welterweight champion Amir Khan (23-1, 17 KO’s) could be within two fights of a mega fight against undefeated Floyd Mayweather Jr. It may seem kind of disappointing and sad, but that’s boxing reality. Khan, 23, is the new hot fighter in the boxing world and despite him still not having fought any of the really dangerous fighters in the junior welterweight division like Marcos Maidana, Devon Alexander, Timothy Bradley or Victor Ortiz, Khan could find himself fighting Mayweather in 2011 in a huge money fight if everything works out right.
Khan’s promotional company Golden Boy Promotions are looking to match Khan up with 38-year-old Joel Casamayor, Maidana or Juan Manuel Marquez next. There was talk of Khan fighting Casamayor on July 31st, so that Khan could squeeze in one more quick fight before Ramadan in August but that may not happen now. But what could happen is that Khan could take on Casamayor or Marquez next, and then either fight one more time in early 2011 against another contender in the junior welterweight division before getting matched against Mayweather.
Things will be much easier for this fight to happen if Mayweather doesn’t fight Manny Pacquiao, because if he takes that fight, Mayweather will make a massive amount of money for that fight and won’t likely be eager to get back in the ring for a long time afterwards. Even an opponent like Khan might not be enough of a lure to get Mayweather in the ring after he fights Pacquiao.
However, it’s looking more and more like Mayweather won’t be fighting Pacquiao anytime soon, which is good news for Khan because there really isn’t a lot of other options for Mayweather to make big money unless he wants to take riskier opponents like Sergio Martinez or Miguel Cotto. Mayweather would likely beat both of them but he would find himself in a real fight against either of them.
The inexperienced Khan would likely be the type of opponent that Mayweather could beat without getting his hands dirty. Khan needs a lot more experience and if he’s rushed into a fight against Mayweather in the next year, he will surely lose. Khan could likely beat Mayweather in four or five years when Mayweather is approaching 40.
However, Mayweather will likely be long gone by then, which is why Khan and his handlers need to strike while the iron is still hot and go after him as soon as possible. At the same time, Khan is very vulnerable to getting beaten by fighters like Maidana, Bradley, Alexander and Ortiz. This is why it’s better that Khan gets put in with Mayweather before he fights those guys rather than after, because if Khan has two or three losses on his record, he probably won’t be much of an attraction for Mayweather.
Khan is a good fighter, but he might not be as good as his record would indicate. After five years as a pro, Khan still hasn’t really taken on the kinds of fighters that tell you much about whether he has what it takes to beat a guy like Mayweather. You can’t look at Khan’s wins over Dmitri Salita, Andriy Kotelnik and Paulie Malignaggi, which are arguably Khan’s best wins of his career, and see him being able to compete with Mayweather.
It’s going to take a lot better opponents than that to learn something about Khan. Unfortunately, we may not get a chance to learn anything about how good Khan is before he’s thrown in with Mayweather in a sink or swim fashion.
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