By Scott Gilfoid: Floyd Mayweather Jr. (46-0, 26 KO’s) isn’t sure yet whether or not he’ll be facing Marcos Maidana in a rematch on September 13th, but HBO commentator Jim Lampley likes the idea of Mayweather fighting Amir Khan (29-3, 19 KO’s) next rather than a second fight against Maidana. Lampley sees Khan’s style as being a tough one Mayweather to solve. Lampley was impressed with Khan’s recent win over Luis Collazo on May 3rd, and that performance sold Lampley to the idea that Khan would be a tough riddle for Mayweather to try and figure out if a fight between them were to be made.
It’s too bad though that Khan can’t fight Mayweather in September due to Ramadan, because there is absolutely positively no way on Earth that Mayweather is going to get off that date to fight someone who isn’t a pay-per-view fighter in November or December. That would be unwise for Mayweather to move from September 13th, which is on the Mexican Independence Day weekend, to fight a guy without a huge fan base in the United States like Khan. To be sure, Khan has a lot of fans in the U.S, but he’s not someone that can bring in the big, big numbers like Miguel Cotto and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez can.
“I don’t know if I want to see that fight [Mayweather-Maidana] right away. I think it might be more interesting if Floyd mixes in another defense and I thought Amir Khan looked good enough that night to earn the job,” Lampley said. “I’ve always thought that Khan, because of his fast hands and his foot movement and his long arms, presents a harder problem for Mayweather than most people recognize.”
Khan-Mayweather would be a decent fight if Khan would have done something to redeem himself after his back to back losses to Lamont Peterson and Danny Garcia, but that’s not happened. Since those losses, Khan has been matched softly against Carlos Molina, a fighter with little size at 5’5″ and zero power, 34-year-old Julio Diaz and 33-year-old Collazo. We’re talking two fighters from the past with those guys, and it’s kind of like how Khan was matched against a past his best Marco Antonio Barrera following Khan’s 1st round knockout loss to Breidis Prescott in 2008. Some fans actually thought that the much smaller Barrera was still in his prime, and Khan was able to get a scalp with a name attached to it with that victory. But there’s just no real quality in Khan’s resume since his losses to Peterson and Garcia. If Khan wants to put himself in the lead position for a Mayweather fight, he needs to fight Shawn Porter or Keith Thurman, because those are the two talented fighters in the welterweight division right now that are making a name for themselves. If Khan beats one or both of those guys, he can then talk about how he deserves the Mayweather fight. At the same time, it would help make a Mayweather vs. Khan fight sell to the boxing public, because Khan would look like a fighter who legitimately deserves the Mayweather fight, and not just someone who is getting the fight because he’s popular in the UK.
Khan needs to clean up his fighting style as well, as the clinching, running, shoving, head locks and pulling down on the head tricks that Khan has been using recently to win is probably not enticing Mayweather to want to fight him. I mean, Khan makes it too easy for Mayweather to look in another direction by choosing to fight the way he does. I personally thought Khan should have been disqualified in the Collazo fight for all the head locks, shoving and head bending that he was doing in that fight. If I was Mayweather, I wouldn’t want to fight someone who used those tactics, because I would prefer to fight a guy that is going to play by the rules.
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