By William Mackay: With no opponent yet signed for his upcoming July 23rd date slated to be shown on HBO, WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan took the opportunity to sound off on David Haye and Floyd Mayweather Jr. in a recent interview at the Daily Mirror. Khan thinks he has the skills to beat Mayweather and is hoping that he’ll get an opportunity to face him in the near future.

With Haye, Khan disapproves of how Haye has been showing a lack of respect for his scheduled July 2nd opponent IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko. Khan thinks Haye should be showing Wladimir more respect out of the ring.

As for Mayweather, Khan said “I want to fight at the elite level to show people how good I am and I have the tools to beat Mayweather. I’m faster than him and I have a better punch, but he is technically brilliant and very smart. Those qualities will come to me in time, especially as I have the best trainer in the world in Freddie Roach. I think Mayweather will happen in 2012. But there will never be a fight between me and Manny [Pacquiao]. We respect each other too much.”

I wonder who told Khan he can punch better than Mayweather? I hope Roach isn’t feeding Khan those thoughts and shoving him down his throat. That’s like telling a kid there is a Santa Claus and continuing with that fantasy as they get older. Khan looks more a slapper than a puncher, and no way do I see him as having power like Mayweather. And I don’t see Khan as having the tools to beat Mayweather nor do I see Khan fighting him next year in 2012. Talk about your pipe dreams.

Khan said this about Haye: “I would never do that [show no respect to an opponent]. I have always tried to be respectful of my opponents. David should leave that kind of stuff for the ring, but I suppose he wanted to show that he was not scared of this guy [Wladimir] who was so much bigger than him.”

I do remember Khan making some comments about his last opponent Paul McCloskey before their bout that didn’t exactly sound respectful of his hand-picked little known opponent.