By Allan Fox: Former WBC light heavyweight champion Montell Griffin thinks Floyd Mayweather Jr’s possible fight against Amir Khan on May 3rd is nothing more than a business fight for Floyd. He sees it as a case of Mayweather Jr. looking at Khan’s huge fan base and wanting to take advantage of it by fighting him to make a lot of money.
Griffin doesn’t see Khan-Mayweather fight as being a fight that has anything to do with competition. It’s just money. In other words, Griffin sees this as a mismatch between vastly superior fighter in Mayweather against a flawed fighter in Khan.
“I think the fight is strictly business. Amir Khan’s a fighter with a huge fan base,” Griffin said to On the Ropes Boxing Radio. “If Floyd fights him, it’ll make a lot of money. His [Mayweather] reputation won’t take a hit if he fights Amir Khan. There’s so many guys he could fight, but you’re picking a guy [Khan] who hasn’t really impressed no one. Danny Garcia knocked him out at 140.”
Griffin is probably right. Mayweather Jr., if he takes this fight, is thinking totally in terms of dollars and cents. He sees a fighter in Khan who hasn’t looked like the same fighter he once was since his fight against Zab Judah in 2011, and he’s hoping to get a big payday and an easy win against Khan.
The only question is will the fans be really interested in seeing Mayweather fight Khan? This really comes down to whether the casual boxing fans will recognize who Khan is or care about paying to see him fight Mayweather. It’s a big risk for Mayweather, because the guys that he’s done well against in pay-per-view in the past either had a built in fan base based on their background makeup or they were hugely popular fighters going into the fight. Khan is a popular fighter in the UK, but not in the United States.
Since the PPV money that Mayweather will be making is from the U.S, this fight could bring in a lot less than what some people think it will. Whether the PPV money that Khan brings in from the UK can make up for what the fight fails to generate in the U.S is still unknown at this point.
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