Khan says Floyd afraid to fight Manny

By Boxing News - 10/06/2011 - Comments

By John F. McKenna (McJack): In a surprising turn of events WBA/IBF light welterweight champion Amir Khan (26-1, 18 KO’s) is accusing World Boxing Council (WBC) welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. (42-0, 26 KO’s) of being afraid to fight WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao (53-3-2, 38 KO’s).

What makes Khan’s accusation so unusual is that both he and Mayweather are both under the auspices of Golden Boy Promotions. Fighters do not normally make disparaging remarks about boxers who are with the same promoting company.

In response to a question as to who would have the opportunity to fight Mayweather first, Khan or Pacquiao, Khan was quoted by Fighthype.com saying:

“I think I’ll get that fight before Manny. Mayweather’s scared to fight Pacquiao.”

Golden Boy has been the promoter for Mayweather since he fought Oscar De La Hoya on May 5, 2007. The Mayweahter – De La Hoya fight generated a live gate of over 19 million dollars, the largest live gate in history. The fight also generated the largest ever Pay Per View (PPV) buys with 2.4 million.

Since the De La Hoya fight, Mayweather has been a cash cow for Golden Boy Promotions as well as HBO. Both entities bend over backwards to avoid alienating “Money” Mayweather.

It will be interesting to see how Golden Boy and Mayweather respond to Khan’s charges that the Mayweather – Pacquiao fight has not happened because Floyd is “scared” to fight Manny.

It is anticipated that some sort of response will be coming from Mayweather, who reverts to his old standby that all “Pacman” has to do is “take the test” and the fight will happen.

For the last couple of years Mayweather has made numerous insinuations that performance enhancing drugs (PEDS) are responsible for Pacquiao’s success in the ring, which includes winning championships in eight divisions. However when Manny brought a defamation lawsuit against Mayweather, Floyd did not show up at a scheduled deposition on June 17 to give evidence as to why he thinks Pacquiao is on PEDS.

In addition Floyd failed to give deposition on numerous dates offered by Pacquiao’s attorneys claiming that he was too busy preparing for his September 17 match with Victor Ortiz.

Many boxing fans, frustrated at the “Dream Match” between Mayweather and Pacquiao not taking place, think “take the test” is just another gimmick Floyd employs to avoid fighting Manny, thereby protecting his “O”.



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