By Scott Gilfoid: Last Saturday night, Amir Khan (31-3, 19 KOs) attended the Danny Garcia vs. Robert Guerrero fight in Los Angeles, California, and he reportedly was yapping at Floyd Mayweather Jr. during the fight card.
Khan says that Mayweather is afraid to fight him, and that he never intended to fight him. Khan believes that Mayweather is afraid of his punching power, hand speed and explosiveness. That’s why he never agreed to fight him.
Mayweather chose to retire after beating Andre Berto last September instead of throwing a mercy bone to Khan by giving him the fight that he’s been yearning for all these years. In hindsight, Khan might have gotten the fight against Mayweather if he’d kept his trap shut instead of hounding Mayweather 24/7, begging for a fight against him.
Khan also could have helped himself if he’d stayed busy and fought the talents in the welterweight and junior middleweight divisions instead of facing mediocre opposition over and over again without let up. If Khan was smart about going after a fight against Mayweather, then he should have fought Kell Brook, Shawn Porter, Adrien Broner, Keith Thurman, Danny Garcia [in a rematch], Terence Crawford, Tim Bradley and Jermall Charlo.
If Khan had fought all those guys and beaten them all, then Mayweather couldn’t have ignored him. Heck, Khan wouldn’t even need Mayweather for a big payday if he beat all those fighters. Khan would be the one commanding the huge paydays. Of course, Khan would have had a devil of a time trying to beat all those fighters, and I don’t think for a second that he would have beaten more than one of them if he was really lucky.
“It seems to me that Mayweather’s afraid and he might just not ever want to fight me,” Khan said to TMZ.com. “People need to know that he’s avoiding Amir Khan.”
Mayweather’s whole thing is he didn’t want to fight someone who he felt was undeserving of a big fight against him. Mayweather pointed out himself that Khan had a record of 2-2 in his last four fights when he was kicking around the idea of fighting him in 2014.
Mayweather instead chose Marcos Maidana to fight, as he had recently beaten Adrien Broner in a huge win. Khan had only beaten Carlos Molina and Julio Diaz since being knocked out by Danny Garcia. Khan’s win over Diaz was a controversial one that took place in the UK, and many fans thought that Khan should have lost that fight. I had Khan losing. He was knocked down by Diaz and rocked a couple of times late in the fight. As such, why would Mayweather want to fight a struggling guy like Khan? It made no sense at all, period.
“He knows he don’t want to fight me, and he never wanted to fight me,” Khan said about Mayweather to thaboxingvoice.com last Saturday night at the Danny Garcia vs. Robert Guerrero fight. “That’s just the type of guy he is. He’s probably thinking ‘I am not as fast as him [Khan]. I’m not as quick as him. I’m not as explosive as him. He’s going to cause me problems, so why take the fight? He’s full of [expletive], to be honest with you. Floyd keeps talking. He just knows,” Khan said.
I seriously doubt that Mayweather is afraid of Khan. It’s more likely a case of Mayweather not being interested in fighting someone who has achieved so little in his career since 2011. That’s kind of the shutoff period on Khan’s career in terms of achievements. He beat Zab Judah, who was clearly WAY past his prime in 2011, and then after that, Khan lost to Lamont Peterson and Danny Garcia in back to back fights. Since them, it’s been all rebuilding for Khan with him fighting fringe level fighters and not facing the best or even close to the best. It can’t be motivating for Mayweather to want to fight Khan with him having done so little with his career since 2011.
Khan isn’t a world champion, so there’s no lure in that direction. Khan hasn’t beaten anyone that you can call a really good fighter since his narrow win over Marcos Maidana in 2010. That fight was six years ago. Khan’s wins since then have come against largely weak punchers and fading fighters. Why would Mayweather want to fight someone like that?
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