By Robbie Bannatyne – The strange and wacky wheel of the boxing world has taken another turn for the bizarre with the announcement that Amir Khan will face Chris Algieri on May 30th. When I awoke to the news I was confused and thought it must still be April Fools Days. Now it is clear that ‘King Khan’ is the only fool left in April.
I mean what the hell is Khan playing at? He could bank of millions of pounds by facing Kell Brook in the biggest British fight of the year, yet he elects to box Chris Algieri in a fight that will struggle to find a broadcaster!
He passes up an opportunity to fight for a legitimate welterweight title, in the hottest division in boxing, against an unbeaten world champion to face light welterweight Chris Algieri, who is rebounding from an embarrassingly one sided beat down at the hands of Manny Pacquiao!
It goes way beyond the borders of disbelief and if he needed confirmation of how mind bogglingly absurd his decision is he got it from Showtime- who are reportedly refusing to even show the fight on their network! Talk about how to lose fans and alienate yourself. For a fighter who is constantly bumping his gums about wanting ‘the big fights against Mayweather and Pacquiao’, he seems intent on isolating himself even further away from these fights with his unfathomable career choices.
The most frustrating thing in this whole farcical saga is that Khan is a great fighter who is as well placed as any welterweight to compete with Floyd Mayweather Jnr and Manny Pacquiao. Instead of remaining in the lull of his delusion that it is somehow his divine right to face either Mayweather or Manny Pacquiao, he should prove he deserves a shot by beating Kell Brook in front a sell-out British crowd.
After all, Khan would be the bookies favourites to beat Brook, and winning the IBF belt would be the best way to force a fight with the winner of Mayweather vs Pacquiao. It stands to reason that whoever prevails in the May 2nd mega fight- valid for the WBC, WBA and WBO welterweight titles- will look to unify the 147lb division entirely by adding the IBF title to their collection. Instead of chasing the carrot on the stick, it looks like Amir Khan has been beaten to the head with a stick- how else can you explain his baffling reluctance to fight Kell Brook?
Khan should have been banging Kell Brook’s door down for a fight, yet it was Brook begging Khan to take the bout. Unbelievable. You really couldn’t make it up. Millions of pounds in the bank and a world title belt that is super bait for the winner of Pacquiao vs Mayweather still couldn’t convince Amir Khan to take one step closer to making his dream a reality.
Make no mistake, Khan will live and die by his decision to face Chris Algieri instead of Kell Brook and in the weird and wonderful world of boxing, who would bet against Khan being forced to swallow the bitter pill of Brook bagging the winner of Mayweather vs Pacquiao at his expense.
Now that would be poetic justice.
Thanks for reading.
Fights Fans: What do you think of Khan’s decision to face Chris Algieri?
I look forward to reading your comments.
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