(Photo credit: Esther Lin/Showtime) By Scott Gilfoid: Former IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (29-3, 19 KOs) was in Las Vegas, Nevada last Saturday night to watch WBA/WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr’s fight against Marcos Maidana (35-5, 31 KOs), and after watching Mayweather beat the tough Argentinian, Khan says Mayweather is slowed down and he wants to fight him.
Khan is hoping that Mayweather will agree to fight him next May, because that’s the only time that Mayweather will be able to fight him in 2015 unless he changes his fight date in September. Khan has Ramadan in September, he says, and the only way Mayweather and him can fight is if he agrees to fight him in May.
Mayweather probably won’t move off of his September date, because he likes to fight on the Mexican Independence Day holiday weekend. He’s probably not going to move off of that date for a fight against Khan, who doesn’t bring in huge ratings Showtime and he doesn’t have a huge fan base in the United States.
The U.S is where Mayweather gets his pay-per-view money, so it doesn’t matter how popular Khan is in places like the UK, India and Pakistan. If he doesn’t have the fan base in the U.S like guys like Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Miguel Cotto, and clearly he doesn’t, then there’s no way Mayweather is going to move off of his fight date in September just to fight him.
“After seeing him win I believe I will beat him,” Khan said of Mayweather. “Floyd, as we all know, isn’t the biggest puncher. His footwork has slowed down, he only throws single punches and gets hit a lot more. We all know Maidana isn’t the quickest, and he still got through with shots. Now it makes sense why the fight isn’t happening between me and Mayweather. Is he afraid of the speed, explosiveness and power? Floyd – let’s get it on!”
Khan fought Maidana in 2010, before he started training with Robert Garcia, and he was almost knocked out by him. Maidana badly staggered Khan in the 10th round, and he arguably would have knocked Khan out if the referee working the fight Joe Cortez hadn’t jumped in so many times to stop the action when Maidana was finishing Khan off. Cortez had a habit of breaking action for fighters on the inside, so when Maidana was battering a badly hurt Khan in close while trying to knock him out. Cortez kept breaking them apart. Khan clearly did far, far worse against Maidana than Mayweather.
What’s interesting also is that Khan never agreed to fight Maidana again despite the fact that the Argentinian repeatedly asked him for a rematch. The fight was close at the end, but Khan chose to move on with his career rather than fight Maidana again. If a rematch were to take place now, it’s hard to see Khan being able to make it the distance, even with the constant holding that he likes to do now in his fights.
“His age is getting to him, I think,” Khan said to IFL TV. “I think Floyd Mayweather is past his peak. He’s getting hit. His age is showing now. What I saw of Floyd today, he’s very beatable. Floyd has never been hit with so many punches. His work rate has dropped a lot. For example, Maidana’s jab was getting through all the time. Maidana’s slow. He’s a slow puncher. My crisp jab would go in there. Power, speed, the left hands, the right hands. My height is a lot bigger than Floyd’s. I would really give him a lot of problems. It would be like a game of chess, but I know I’d win that game of chess.”
Khan will be fighting on December 6th against an opponent that will be revealed in the next few days. He’s currently working with his adviser Al Haymon on who the opponent will be, but he says the names that he’s looking at is Josesito Lopez, Robert Guerrero and Devon Alexander. Lopez is the guy that is rumored to be the likely opponent that Khan fight next.
Lopez isn’t ranked in the top 15, and he’s been knocked out by Maidana and Canelo in the last couple of years. In his last fight last Thursday, Josesito Lopez looked absolutely terrible in struggling against a little 5’6” 2nd tier fighter named Rafael Cobos (15-5) in beating him by an 8 round decision.
“We’re working on something right now, me and Al Haymon,” Khan said. “Within the next couple of days [the fight will be announced]. I’ve read a few names like Josesito Lopez, Robert Guerrero, Devon Alexander. I want to fight the best. I would love to fight Pacquiao this time around or Mayweather if that fight was open to me. There’s a lot of fighters I’d like to fight that are avoiding me so let’s see what happens. It [a fight against Kell Brook] could happen, but he got injured. I wish him all the best. If that fight makes sense then it could happen for sure.”
Khan doesn’t seem all that excited about fighting Brook for some reason or the other top guys like Keith Thurman. It just looks like Khan wants the big money fights like Mayweather and Pacquiao where he’ll get a big payday. Khan doesn’t seem to be interested in proving himself worthy of fighting Mayweather and Pacquiao, because he frankly still hasn’t redeemed himself after his losses to Danny Garcia and Lamont Peterson. Since those defeats, Khan has beaten Carlos Molina, Julio Diaz and Luis Collazo. Molina and Diaz were 2nd tier fighters, and Collazo was a guy with an inflated ranking based on his win over a shot Victor Ortiz.
Those aren’t relevant fighters or big names. Those were tune-up, confidence builder type fights for Khan, and not fights where he proved himself worthy of fighting a big name. It’s interesting that Khan’s adviser keeps matching him against weaker opposition instead of against the top guys. If Khan is matched against Josesito Lopez instead of Guerrero or Alexander, then you have to see it as a situation where Khan is being protected in order to make sure he gets the big money fight against Mayweather without being beaten by one of the top names in the 147 pound division before then.
“Ramadan, yes. If the Floyd fight is going to happen, it’s going to happen in May. Style-wise, it makes sense. Speed, movement and someone who is quicker than Floyd,” Khan said. “That’s what’s going to cause him problems, and someone who is young and hungry with good fitness. Those are the things that are going to give Mayweather a lot of problems.”
With Khan being limited to just May of 2015 for a Mayweather fight, he could easily find himself out of luck at that time as well, because Mayweather would make far more money if he were to fight Miguel Cotto or Canelo Alvarez again then he would Khan, who isn’t well known among casual boxing fans in the U.S.
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