By Scott Gilfoid: Floyd Mayweather Jr. is going to need to push Golden Boy Promotions’ marketing machine to the ultimate limit if he chooses to fight Britain’s Amir Knan on the Mexican Cinco de Mayo holiday next May in the United States. The date is all wrong to attract Mexican fans unless Mayweather gets a clue and chooses a top Mexican fighter instead of Khan.
It’s probably an easy fight for Mayweather to put together given that Khan is with Golden Boy Promotions rather than Top Rank. Khan will likely want more money than what Robert Guerrero got, so there could be some issues in making the fight, but not nearly as much that there would be if Mayweather to fight someone like Manny Pacquiao, for example.
It’s not a good time for Mayweather to be fighting someone like Khan, because the British fighter has done jack to rebuild his name after his defeats against Danny Garcia and Lamont Peterson. Khan should have already brought himself back from those defeats by facing Garcia and Peterson in rematches. We haven’t seen that. In fact, we haven’t seen Khan fight anyone that you can consider a good fighter since his loss to Garcia.
In his last 2 fights, Khan has beaten a light welterweight named Carlos Molina, and a way best his prime Julio Diaz. This isn’t the same Carlos Molina that fights in the junior middleweight division and who recently won the IBF junior middleweight title. This is a little known 140 lb. Carlos Molina without the slickness and skills that the 154 lb. Carlos Molina has.
I think Khan would lose big to the junior middleweight Carlos Molina. Julio Diaz had Khan hurt, and he clearly beat him but wasn’t given the decision in the London, England based fight. Khan should be fighting Diaz again, because that was pretty much a Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. – Bryan Vera type of decision in the Khan-Diaz fight.
Khan didn’t look good enough in the Diaz fight for him to be considered as a Mayweather opponent. To be sure, I’d love to see Mayweather fight Khan just for the heck of it, but it wouldn’t be a good fight for boxing fans to watch unless you’re main interest is seeing Mayweather slaughter Khan in front of the entire world. If that’s what fans want, then this is a great mismatch. But it’s not a good fight in terms of it being a competitive match-up, and I don’t think Mexican fans are going to be excited about watching Mayweather-Khan on Cinco de Mayo holiday next May.
Even if Golden Boy loaded up the undercard with Mexican fighters, it wouldn’t be enough to attract interest in paying $60 to see Mayweather-Khan as the headline bout. I don’t think Mayweather should ever waste his time with Khan because it’s not a sell-able fight in the U.S, and Khan won’t be able to do enough to redeem himself before Mayweather’s remaining 4 fights on his Showtime/CBS contract expires.
I think Khan would be good for the little Mayweather, Adrien Broner, rather than for Mayweather. Golden Boy should match up Khan and Broner after the Broner vs. Marcos Maidana fight; provided that Broner is able to get past Maidana. If Khan beats Broner, then maybe it would be a good idea for a Mayweather vs. Khan fight. It would be like a revenge of the brother type of thing with big Mayweather getting revenge for little Mayweather. The thing is, I don’t think Khan could beat Broner because he hits too hard, and once he catches Khan with a big shot, it’ll be pretty much over with. Khan will get up, but he’ll get knocked down again and again until the fight is stopped.
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