By Scott Gilfoid: Amir Khan has just received the news about Marcos Maidana (35-3, 31 KO’s) getting picked by Floyd Mayweather Jr. (45-0, 26 KO’s) for his next fight on May 3rd in Las Vegas, Nevada or the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, and Khan isn’t sounding too cheerful judging by his post on his twitter page. Khan said “Let’s just leave everything up to God. Hope you all having a good day. Gym time for me shortly. Speak later.”
I hate to say it, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles, Khan. You had your chance and you royally blew it by now making the fight moves.
The decision by Mayweather to ignore his own poll results and select Maidana instead of Khan for his next fight sends a strong message to fighters should never assume anything when it comes to the talented Mayweather. Khan thought he had the Mayweather fight in his grasp, so he stopped fighting and waited for 10 months, and today he got his answer in Mayweather’s decision to fight Maidana instead of him.
My guess is Khan is feeling very bitter right now, and probably as angry as heck for Mayweather choosing not to give him the fight after he egged on his 1.4 million twitter followers to help him win Mayweather’s poll at his website. But it’s Khan’s fault for not making the decision easy for Mayweather. With all a bunch of defeats in his last four fights, it was imperative that Khan kept busy with his career and picked up a scalp or two to show that he wasn’t the washed up fighter that many boxing fans thought he was after watching him lose to Danny Garcia and go life and death with Julio Diaz.
Had Mayweather chose to give Khan the fight instead of Maidana, he would have been absolutely skewered by fans, because they wouldn’t have wanted to pay to see Mayweather fight an opponent with 2 defeats in his last 4 fights. Fans are kind of funny that way, I guess. They want to see fights where the bout is competitive on paper, and not just seen as a sick mismatch where Mayweather is seen as cherry picking a struggling fighter with a chin problem.
Beyond that, the date for Mayweather’s next fight fit Maidana as his next opponent rather than Khan, because it’s going to be taking place on Cinco de Mayo. Maidana is from Argentina and not Mexico, but I think he would have a better chance of bringing in fans celebrating the holiday than the Pakistani-born Khan.
You’ve got to give Mayweather respect for ignoring his poll and giving the people what they want in Maidana rather than Khan. Believe me, Maidana will bring a lot of excitement to this fight due to his power and his heart. He’ll also bring in a lot of fans interested in purchasing the fight on PPV. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Mayweather-Maidana fight does between 1.6 to 1.8 million PPV buys on May 3rd.
As for Khan, I would like to think he’ll be adult about this and accept Mayweather’s decision in selecting the better man Maidana for this fight. I’m sure Mayweather would love to have Khan fighting on his undercard in the co-feather against the likes of Adrien Broner or Keith Thurman.
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