By Scott Gilfoid: Golden Boy Promotions president Oscar De La Hoya feels that #1 WBC, #2 WBA, #5 WBO welterweight contender Amir Khan (29-3, 19 KOs) has done more than enough in his career to be fighting Floyd Mayweather Jr and Manny Pacquiao for their titles.
Khan has a fight against Devon Alexander (26-2, 14 KOs) this Saturday night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. De La Hoya hopes that a win for Khan will lead to him getting a fight against Mayweather or possibly Pacquiao.
Alexander isn’t the most dangerous opponent in the welterweight division that Khan could be facing right now, as many boxing fans feel that Keith Thurman is much more dangerous opponent due to his power. But it doesn’t look like Golden Boy Promotions is interested in matching Khan against Thurman in order for him to prove himself worthy of a fight against Mayweather or Pacquiao. I mean, it’s understandable why we’re not seeing a Khan-Thurman fight, because with Thurman’s punching power, he’d likely expose Khan in the same way that Bredis Prescott and Danny Garcia did in knocking him out.
“The time for him [Khan] is now. He deserves to be fighting Floyd Mayweather. He deserves to be fighting Manny Pacquiao,” De La Hoya said via the theguardian.com. “He’s getting stronger and he’s getting faster… I really do feel that Amir Khan can be one of the top fighters of all time. But first things first: Devon Alexander is a tough, tough opponent.”
I’m not so sure that Khan is going to be one of the top fighters of all time. I don’t see it that way. He’s had too many soft opponents in the past two years since his back to back defeats to Lamont Peterson and Danny Garcia. You can’t call Khan one of the best of all times with him facing little Carlos Molina, Julio Diaz and Luis Collazo. Those three fights just ate up two years of Khan’s career.
At some point Golden Boy should have taken Khan off the soft diet and put him back on a more solid diet during the past two years. I mean, that was just wasted time.
De La Hoya went on to say that he’s not happy that Khan didn’t get a shot against Pacquiao or Mayweather recently. He feels that he should have been able to get a fight against them.
It’s easier to understand why Mayweather went in another direction. He was on the verge of fighting Khan, but he opted for a fight against Marcos Maidana instead, as he was coming off of a big win over Adrien Broner. It was a no-brainer for Mayweather to face Maidana rather than a guy like Khan, who was facing one soft opponent after another after his losses to Garcia and Peterson.
Khan would have likely gotten a fight against Mayweather and Pacquiao ages ago if Golden Boy had matched him against good opposition instead of putting him in with weaker opponents for two solid years. They haven’t matched him against the guys that would naturally lead to bigger fights. If you want a Mayweather fight for Khan, then he should have been put in with Keith Thurman and/or Maidana, but we didn’t see that.
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