By Scott Gilfoid: After pining away for a fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr for years, Amir Khan is trying to come to terms with the latest news that Mayweather doesn’t see him as a big enough name in the United States for him to bother fighting.
Mayweather only has a couple fights left on his six-fight Showtime/CBS contract and he’s being very selective in the opponents he faces because he wants to maximize the amount of money he makes with his remaining fights on his contract.
Mayweather can’t afford to fight a guy that the U.S fans aren’t excited about.
Khan thinks that if he can’t get a fight against Mayweather, then he’ll get a fight against Manny Pacquiao. I’m not so sure that’s a fight that has any realistic chance of happening. Khan is managed by Al Haymon, and it’s unclear whether he’d be interested in doing business with Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank.
In trying to understand why Mayweather passed him over, Khan said to the Manchesterevningnews.co.uk “It could be because of my speed, explosiveness and power. Floyd is probably thinking, ‘They fight someone like Amir Khan who is giving me a lot of problems, who is going to be punching me a lot.’”
Instead of Khan driving himself crazy bellyaching about why Mayweather chose to turn his nose up towards a fight against him, Khan should be thinking more in terms of who he can actually fight instead of crying over spilled milk.
Mayweather doesn’t have any interest in fighting Khan, and he should have got a clue last May when Mayweather selected Maidana instead of him for a fight. The hint was right there for Khan. All that chasing of Mayweather has probably put him off.
I don’t see Mayweather’s lack of interest in fighting Khan being a result of him thinking Khan is too fast or explosive. I see Mayweather totally focused on wanting to get the most popular guy. I mean, he chose Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, who would likely blast Khan into smithereens, to fight last year, and that fight resulted in a ton of money and pay-per-view buys for Mayweather.
Why would Mayweather want to choose an opponent that doesn’t have a large fan base in the U.S like Khan?
“I can’t see Mayweather-Pacquiao fight happening,” Khan said. I just can’t see it happening. If it’s not Mayweather then I’ll have a fight with Pacquiao.”
Khan might need to step back and realize that he doesn’t call the shots about fighting the big stars like Pacquiao and Mayweather. Khan can call the shots when he’s fighting the Luis Collazo, Carlos Molina and Devon Alexander types, but for fights against Pacquiao and Mayweather, he’s outside looking in.
Those guys belong to an exclusive club that Khan doesn’t have a membership for to get in. In other words, he can only peer through the windows and watch these stars rather than engaging with them.
I’d be very surprised if Khan gets anywhere close to a fight against Pacquiao in 2015. For that reason I think it would be in Khan’s best interest to face Kell Brook before either of them get beaten by one of the good contenders in the division.
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