By Sean McDaniel: Although Amir Khan originally backed Floyd Mayweather Jr. for hitting former WBC welterweight champion Victor Ortiz with a two punch combo when Ortiz had his hands down by his sides and wasn’t in the position to defend himself, it looks as if Khan has hand a change of heart.
Khan now believes that if Mayweather wasn’t who he is – an incredibly popular fighter – he would have been disqualified for laying into the defenseless Ortiz, who merely trying to apologize to Mayweather for headbutting him moments earlier.
“They let him [Mayweather] off the hook because he is Floyd Mayweather,” Khan said to the BBC Sport. “If that was anyone else you would been disqualified but because it was Mayweather they can’t disqualify him. Mayweather is a fighter off the streets and he thought ‘forget this, I’m going to get this kid back’ and as soon as the ref wasn’t looking, bang, he hit him [Ortiz] with a left hook. If that happened without Victor hitting him in the head, I think Floyd would have been disqualified.”
Sadly, I’m in full agreement with Khan. I think Mayweather got away with hitting Ortiz with two shots that would have possibly gotten a less popular fighter thrown out of the fight. But we’re talking Mayweather here, arguably the number #1 or number #2 fighter in boxing in terms of pay per view money.
You’re not going to throw Mayweather out of there like you would some average Joe that no one has ever heard of. Popular fighters like Mayweather are like royalty in a way. It’s hard to beat them by decision and they tend to be called less for fouls it seems, not that Mayweather is really big on fouling. Other his his using of his elbows at times, he’s not really one to foul in his fights. Hopefully this was just an aberration.
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