By Dan Ambrose: Showtime Sports President Stephen Espinoza says that Amir Khan is one of the main names that Floyd Mayweather Jr. is looking at for his next fight on May 3rd. The other name is Marcos Maidana. Espinoza says that Mayweather also has some other fighters that he’s looking at for that date, but he’s not saying who these guys are.
It would be a big shock if Mayweather chose to fight someone other than Khan or Maidana, because there’s not much to choose from at 147 right now in terms of big names. There’s Shawn Porter, Keith Thurman, Kell Brook and Devon Alexander. But it’s difficult to picture Mayweather choosing one of those guys to fight next.
“Khan is definitely one of the leading contenders for the fight,” Espinoza said to the Telegraph. “I know Amir wants the fight. It’s definitely a topic of conversation. Floyd hasn’t made a decision. I expect an announcement by mid-January or end of January. At this point, it’s still wide open. Floyd has not made a decision yet about who he is going to fight…Marcos Maidana has made a late case and a strong arguement for the fight.”
Espinoza is making an understatement when he says that Khan wants the fight. Khan is living and breathing the Mayweather fight, and it would be interesting to be a fly on the wall to see Khan’s reaction if Maidana gets the fight instead of him. Khan beat Maidana three years ago by a 12 round unanimous decision, and so you can imagine how Khan would feel if a guy he beat gets the fight against Mayweather instead of him. But Mayweather probably is going to select his next opponent on the best fighter is at 147, because if he were to do that then he would select someone like Keith Thurman.
Mayweather will likely be making his selection on which guy will bring the most pay-per-view buys for his fight. I’m not sure if Khan is the guy to make that happen. If this fight were staged in the UK without any U.S PPV money, then Khan would be the best guy for the fight. But Mayweather needs someone that can attract fans to purchase the fight in the U.S., and Maidana might be the better option for that purpose because Khan is virtually unknown to the casual boxing fans in the U.S.
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