By William Mackay: Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer says he’s spoken to unbeaten Floyd Mayweather Jr. and he’s open to facing WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan next year after Mayweather fights Manny Pacquiao. Khan will, of course, have to beat IBF light welterweight champion Zab Judah in his fight this month on July 23d for a Mayweather fight to happen.
There’s also talk that Khan will facing aging former three time world champion Erik Morales next after the Judah fight and then Kell Brook at welterweight before facing Mayweather. The Morales fight would a bout where Khan could get some attention in the United States by knocking off an old lion without the risk of getting knocked out if Khan were to face someone with power like Breidis Prescott, Lucas Matthysse or Marcos Maidana.
There’s no telling what would happen if Khan gets matched against Brook, because he can fight a little, although he’s not very quick of hand. I would frankly be surprised if Khan’s promotional company actually make this fight. I can see Khan being matched up against an old guy like Morales, because they had been trying to make the fight recently but Morales wasn’t interested. But to put Khan in with a good fighter like Brook, I have my doubts that will happen with a big cash out fight against Mayweather on the horizon. Khan would very, very little chance against a quality fighter like Mayweather. It would be a mismatch from the word go. Khan barely beat Maidana recently and looked awful in defeating Ireland’s Paul McCloskey in his last fight.
Schaefer had this to say at thesun.co.uk: “Ive had conversations with Mayweather and his adviser Al Haymon and they are definitely open to fight with Khan. Mayweather has indicated that he’d like to do the Pacquiao fight [next after the Ortiz bout] if the blood testing issue can be sorted out. Khan would then fight in autumn 2012 against Mayweather.”
Khan might be lucky just to get by Judah, because he has problems taking hard shots and Judan can punch. Khan had all he could handle against Maidana, and if Judah is able to get in close to Khan and fire him up on the inside, it’s doubtful that Khan would make it out of the fight. As long as the referee doesn’t step in to pull Judah off of Khan while he’s blasting away at him, I can see Judah winning this fight and destroying any chance of Mayweather facing Khan next year. That doesn’t mean that Golden Boy Promotions still won’t go ahead and match Khan and Mayweather up against each other, but it will take a lot of the interest out of the fight that’s for sure. It would make it difficult to sell in the United States, and it might have to take place in England under those conditions.
Khan isn’t anywhere near the same level as Mayweather and it would be a tremendous mismatch if Khan does get put in with Mayweather. It would be one of Mayweather’s easier fights because Khan will likely fold early once Mayweather starts landing his precision punches.
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