By Dan Ambrose: WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (24-1, 17 KO’s) doesn’t plan on sticking around in the light welterweight division for much longer. Khan, 24, revealed in a Sky Sports News interview that he plans on beating Paul McCloskey (22-0, 12 KO’s) on April 16th, and then take on and beat WBC/WBO light welterweight champion Timothy Bradley (27-0, 11 KO’s) in the Summer in a unification bout.
Following that, Khan doesn’t plan on sticking around and trying to defend the unified titles against the likes of the hungry lions Marcos Maidana and Lucas Matthysse. Instead, Khan says he wants to move up to the welterweight (147 lbs) division and go after Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Shane Mosley. It’s unclear whether Khan will then retire after he gets the cash out fight against one of those two or if he’ll continue to try and fight in the welterweight division. If Khan gets a fight against Mayweather, he will almost surely lose and lose badly.
Khan isn’t in Mayweather’s league and never will be. That’s a mismatch. Khan might be able to beat Mosley, but even as shot as Mosley is now, that’s a big ask. Mosley can punch and is fairly accurate. He would force Khan to fight the kind of fight that Maidana was putting him through in the 10th through 12th rounds in Khan’s last fight last December. I don’t think Khan would do well in that kind of fight against a still fast, power and dangerous puncher like Mosley.
Khan might get knocked out even by Mosley. Khan may need to consider moving back down to the light welterweight division once he’s beaten by one or both of those two unless he’s just looking to cash out and retire from the sport prematurely rather than risking his neck against other fighters like Andre Berto, Saul Alvarez or Mike Jones at welterweight. I don’t like Khan’s chances against any of those guys because they can punch even better than Maidana and they would almost surely catch up to Khan and put a big dent in his chin, even if Khan were running and holding a lot like he did in the Maidana fight.
Khan had this to say in an interview with Sky: “I want to unify the division [after McCloskey bout] in the summer against Bradley, and after that move up to 147 pounds and fight for a pound-for-pound title. There are a lot of great fighters out there – Floyd Mayweather, Shane Mosley – and I think fighting one of them would me one of the best fighters in the world. My dream is to be the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world.”
Khan had this to say about fighting Mayweather: “That’s a fight that could happen in Wembley Arena. It’s a fight people would want to see across the world. I’m a big fan of Mayweather, but sometimes you have to share the ring with one of your heroes. It would be massive.”
I agree it would be massive – a massive mismatch. Khan wouldn’t stand a chance against Mayweather. And beating the soon to be 40-year-old Mosley will hardly make Khan a great fighter. Mosley should have lost his last two fights and will definitely lose to Manny Pacquiao on May 7th. So in effect, Khan would be facing a 40-year-old Mosley, who be coming off of two losses out of his last three fights, and Khan wants to be considered great for beating Mosley?
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