(Photo credit: Esther Lin/SHOWTIME) By Scott Gilfoid: Floyd Mayweather Jr. spelled it out tonight why he isn’t fighting Britain’s Amir Khan on September 12th by saying that Khan didn’t do what he had to do by facing Danny Garcia to try and avenge his earlier loss to him three years ago. With Mayweather saying that he’s not fighting Khan because he never avenged his loss to Danny Garcia, he’s shut the door on him ever fighting Khan. The reason why the door is permanently shut on Mayweather vs. Khan taking place is because Khan isn’t going to fight Garcia. If he was going to, he would have already done it by now, wouldn’t he?
Khan has been talking nonstop about how Mayweather is ducking him, and how he’s afraid to fight him because of his hand speed. But according to Mayweather the reason why he’s chosen not to fight Khan is because the guy simply wouldn’t even try and avenge his 4th round knockout loss from 2012.
“Amir Khan has to get past Danny Garcia. That’s why he’s not getting this fight,” Mayweather said earlier today at his kickoff press conference with Andre Berto in Los Angeles, California.
This has got to hurt Khan hearing Mayweather say that. However, instead of it being a huge blow to Khan, he should see it as a positive thing, because now he can move on with his life and start taking whatever important fights he’s been avoiding in order to stop losing all the time. Before Khan started guarding his won-lost record starting in 2013, Khan had lost back to back fights to Danny Garcia and Lamont Peterson. But ever since those two tough fights, Khan has won five straight fights against a mix of old timers and weak punchers. But now Khan can move and start fighting good opposition now that Mayweather has told him why he’s never going to fight him. That means that Khan can go back and fight Prescott, Garcia and Peterson. Khan can also fight guys like Lucas Matthysse, Marcos Maidana, Keith Thurman, Shawn Porter, Kell Brook and Errol Spence Jr.
Mayweather was asked why he’s decided to fight Berto rather than Khan, and his answer was a logical one in saying that Khan never fought Danny Garcia again to try and avenge his loss. By only mentioning Danny Garcia, Mayweather was being very kind to Khan. I mean, if Mayweather wanted to be cruel to Khan, he could have mentioned that he had unfinished business with Breidis Prescott and Lamont Peterson.
Both guys whipped Khan in the past. Prescott knocked Khan out in the 1st round in 2008, and Peterson beat him in 2011 by a 12 round decision. Granted, Khan’s loss to Prescott was a long time ago, but that still doesn’t mean that Khan shouldn’t have tried to avenge the loss. Khan had all those years to go back and try line up a fight against Prescott, but he failed to do so.
You can’t tell me that Khan’s former promoters at Golden Boy Promotions didn’t have deep enough pockets to line Khan up for a rematch against Prescott. The same goes with Khan’s loss to Peterson four years ago. Khan had four years to go back and avenge the loss to Peterson. Did Khan do that? Nope. As such, he’s not getting the Mayweather fight.
Mayweather might come back in 2016 to continue his career for one more fight. But even then, no way do I see him bothering to fight Khan. Why should he fight him? There are other guys that Mayweather can fight that will bring him big bank. Fighting Khan would be little money for Mayweather like his fight against Andre Berto. There’s just no way that Mayweather is going to take two straight low paying fights, and that’s another reason why Khan isn’t getting the fight against him in 2016.
This should be a freeing thing for Khan. He can now get the weight of the Mayweather fight off of his back, and start concentrating on trying to make fights that are actual doable and reality based instead of the fantasy stuff that Khan had been dreaming off all these years. There’s really nothing keeping Khan from moving ahead and fighting guys like Brook, Thurman, Garcia, Porter or Spence now. If Khan gets beaten by them, then it won’t matter because the Mayweather fight is already off the table permanently.
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