By William Mackay: Amir Khan takes exception to what Floyd Mayweather Jr had to say about him yesterday in an interview where Mayweather pointed out that Khan didn’t draw many boxing fans for his recent fight against Zab Judah.
Mayweather instead suggested that Khan would be a good opponent for one of his fighters in his promotional stable Jessie Vargas, who is unbeaten at 16-0, 9 KO’s. Khan doesn’t appear to be at all interested in fighting the lesser known Vargas, however.
Khan said this on his twitter account today: “I’m not a big enough draw to fight in 2012, and Victor Ortiz [Mayweather’s next opponent] is right now? No disrespect to Victor Ortiz. He’s a great fighter and a very good friend, but he’s fought on my undercard twice. I’ll be ready to fight Floyd. In two fights time, if he [Mayweather] wants to fight this year, I would but Floyd Mayweather only talks down on fighters who are threats to him. As a fighter if you want to be the best you have to fight the best and my time has come…I will be the biggest draw two fight Floyd after Manny Pacquiao, and they know that.”
I don’t think so. Khan may not realize this because he’s been living in England his whole life, but Ortiz’s fights have been shown on HBO for quite some time now. He’s not a new comer by any means. Boxing fans are very familiar with him and this is why Mayweather chose him to fight and not the still largely obscure Khan. Ortiz just beat one of the top three welterweights in the division in Andre Berto. He’s not taking on old fighters like Zab Judah or unknown guys like Paul McCloskey like Khan.
I think Mayweather is right about Khan. He’s not a big enough draw for him to fight right now. Maybe that can change if Khan would step it up and try and redeem his 1st round knockout loss to Breidis Prescott, and fight the winner of the Marcos Maidana vs. Roberto Guerrero. If Khan fights those two fights, he’ll have gone a long ways towards putting his name on the boxing map in the United States. But facing Judah, Paul McCloskey and Paulie Maligaggi reeks of Khan being carefully matched to put him in with guys he can beat without much risk involved. I say put Khan back in with Prescott and Maidana with a hands off referee like Steve Smoger to work the fights. I’d like to see how Khan would do in those fights – not that he’d take them mind you.
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