Khan wants Cotto, Pacquiao or Danny Garcia

By Boxing News - 05/09/2016 - Comments

khan7633By Scott Gilfoid: Amir Khan (31-4, 19 KOs) was demolished last Saturday night in getting stopped in the sixth round by WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (47-1-1, 33 KOs). The loss doesn’t seem to have taken away any Khan’s self confidence or his ambition.

Khan says he wants to now fight WBC welterweight champion Danny Garcia, Manny Pacquiao or Miguel Cotto. Khan will be speaking with his adviser Al Haymon and trainer Virgil Hunter to decide which direction to go in for his next fight.

Khan wants to fight in December in the UK. That’ll give the 29-year-old Khan seven months to recover from his knockout against the much heavier looking Canelo.

Cotto might go for a fight against Khan if he can’t get a rematch against Canelo in November. That’s the fight that Cotto wants, but if he can’t get it, then I definitely could see him going for a payday fight against Khan. I’m not too sure about Cotto being agreeable to fighting him in the UK though. I can’t see Cotto being on board with that wild idea from Khan.

Cotto has been looking to get a fight against a welterweight recently, and a match against Khan might be just what he’s looking for. Khan’s adviser Al Haymon will need to get in contact with Cotto’s promoters at Roc Nation Sports to work on making that fight happen.

If they don’t move on the Cotto fight, they could miss out because he’ll wind up fighting some other welterweight. It just looks like to me that Cotto wants a smaller guy for his next fight after having been outsized by Canelo last November.

“There are big fights for me in America, even Miguel Cotto – bringing him to the UK – or Manny Pacquiao, I’d like to fight in the UK next, hopefully December,” said Khan to skysports.com. “Al Haymon advises me and Garcia. I’ve not spoken to Al yet – he wants to talk with me – I also need to speak to Virgil Hunter, my trainer.”

Khan can get the title shot against WBC welterweight champion Danny Garcia if he wants it badly enough. I think it’s a bad idea to fight Garcia right now after the way Khan was knocked out by Canelo. I don’t think Khan cares about that. He seems to be dialed in for a big fight. Haymon and Virgil Hunter need to save Khan from himself because he could wind up hurting his career if he takes a fight against Garcia or especially Cotto. As far as Khan getting a fight against Pacquiao goes, that isn’t happening. That’ a pipe dream on Khan’s part.

If Pacquiao does choose to come out of retirement to resume his boxing career, he sure as heck won’t be wasting a fight by facing a guy coming off of a knockout like Khan. That would make Pacquiao look bad if he took that fight, and he has better things to do than for him to be looking like a bottom feeder right now.

“The future still holds big fights, I don’t think this put me down in any way. Everything was going my way, I was winning the fight,” said Khan. “I’ve got the Garcia fight there, I’m still in the mandatory position with the WBC, that’s a big fight for me,” Khan.

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I think Khan can get a big fight against Garcia or IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook if he wants those fights. Those are easy fights to make. If Khan chooses to push Haymon to get his way in facing a dangerous opponent, then we’ll probably be seeing Khan fight someone like Garcia, Cotto or even Brook next.

If Haymon and Hunter are able to talk some sense into Khan’s head to convince him to take a tune-up fight next, then we’ll see Khan fighting another Chris Algieri type of guy. It’ll be up to Khan. If he’s receptive to career advice from Hunter and Haymon, it’ll be good for him because those guys aren’t going to do anything risky with him at this point. They obviously will know that you can’t throw Khan in with a puncher off of a loss like the one he suffered against Canelo. Khan is pretty forceful and he might push hard to get his way to fight the likes of Cotto or Garcia. In that case, I see him getting blasted out in his next fight and his career sent spinning to the bottom.