By Scott Gilfoid: Amir “King” Khan (31-4, 19 KOs) says he wants a fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. Khan says Mayweather hasn’t ever fought anyone with his kind of speed, and that he’s never been out-boxed by anyone during his career.
Khan points out that he was beating Canelo before getting knocked out in the 6th round. 2 of the 3 judges that worked the Canelo-Khan fight had Canelo ahead at the time of the stoppage. Khan might be right that he was beating Canelo, but only one of the Nevada State Athletic Commission appointed judges had him ahead at the time the fight ended. Perhaps if the fight had taken place outside of Las Vegas, like in New York, Khan would have been ahead, but he was definitely trailing in the fight with Canelo at the time of the stoppage in round 6.
Mayweather posted a couple of videos on Instagram last week of him working out at his Mayweather Boxing gym in Las Vegas, which has a lot of fans thinking he’s planning on making a comeback to the sport. The odds of Mayweather fighting Khan though would seem to be highly unlikely. Mayweather is more driven for money at this point in his career rather than taking risky fights. Khan wouldn’t be a risky fight for Mayweather though. That would be a very winnable one for him. The reason why Mayweather likely wouldn’t entertain a fight with Khan is the lack of interest from the boxing world in such a match-match.
Khan is no longer relevant at 147 due to KO loss to Canelo, his long period of inactivity, and his many years since his last world title fight at 140 back in 2012. You can’t really count Khan’s title challenge against Canelo at middleweight as him taking a serious fight that he had any chance of winning. Canelo vs. Khan was a business fight, not a match-up that ever intended on being competitive. It was like the Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor fight. Canelo-Khan was more of a circus event than a true fight. The last title fight that Khan took that he had a chance of winning was against Danny Garcia in 2012, and he was knocked out in the 4th round.
“I know it’s been a year I’ve not fought due to hand surgery,” said Khan on his Twitter. ”I’m ready to make comeback at 30 years of age. Say what you like, Canelo was getting out-boxed. I was winning on the cards. He had power and caught me with a huge right. That’s boxing. Mayweather doesn’t have the power,” said Khan.
Khan is right about Mayweather not having any punching power, but that doesn’t mean he’s going to bother taking a fight with him. Like I already said, Mayweather is only focusing on money nowadays. He’s already said that his asking price for him to fight is 9 figures, and he’s not going to make that kind of money fighting Khan.
If anything, Mayweather will make another comeback to face UFC star Conor McGregor in a rematch in boxing. There are a lot of suckers, I mean, fans that will happily purchase a second fight between Mayweather and McGregor. To be sure, there will be a lot of attrition with fans not willing to pay $100 per household to see the Mayweather-McGregor rematch, but you can bet that at least 2 million at the minimum will be willing to purchase it on PPV. That would give Mayweather another $100 million to add to his bank account to help feather his nest in retirement. With the way that Mayweather throws his money around on purchasing expensive items, he’s going to need as much money as possible to help him continue to live in luxury. Mayweather’s new Beverly Hills mansion is out of this world with its beauty. It’s a dream house. If Mayweather can scoop up another $100 million fighting McGregor again, he can continue to purchase mansions like this in Beverly Hills, and use them as investments.
Khan doesn’t have anything to bring to Mayweather in terms of fan interest from boxing fans. There was a time where Mayweather vs. Khan would have been a fairly big fight, but that was way back in 2011, before Khan was beaten by Lamont Peterson and Danny Garcia in back to back fights.
”Who knows. Floyd is a great fighter I just have something he’s not faced, speed,” said Khan in continuing to try and make a case for him being a good option Mayweather. ”Floyd knows I’m not the 1 to back down. In any fight I’ve never been out-boxed. Mayweather Khan fight would be a game of chess. Speed, movement and accuracy will cause him problems,” said Khan.
It’s too bad Khan is still hyped up thinking he’s got a chance to fight Mayweather, because it’s a little more than a pipe dream on his part to be pining away for that fight. Mayweather is NOT going to ever fight Khan. That fight is not going to happen. Mayweather and Khan are at different levels. Khan is more of a 2nd tier fighter at 147, and not even mentioned among the top guys in that division. Khan is more like yesterday’s news for the welterweight division.
The only fight that Khan has that could make him some real money is former IBF welterweight champion Kell “Special K” Brook, who has been calling him out for years now. With 2 straight defeats to Gennady Golovkin and Errol Spence, Brook needs a fight against Khan right now to keep his boxing career afloat, because it’s starting to look like he’s about done as a major fighter. If Brook could take Khan’s scalp, it would at least temporarily revive his sagging career. I mean, I don’t see Brook doing anything at 147 or 154 at this point, as his injury problems with his eyes are likely going to impact his career and hasten an early end for it. That’s why it’s important for Brook to get the fight with Khan now before he gets stopped again.
“If you wanna play kiss-chase with retired men, shame, really,” Brook said on his Twitter in response to Khan calling out Mayweather. “Get in with me, ‘n I’ll fast track ya into collecting your pension.”
It’s clear that Khan is saving the Brook fight until the very end when he absolutely needs to make that fight. When things are totally bleak for Khan career-wise, he’ll take the Brook fight at that point. It suggests that Khan doesn’t believe he can win it. If Khan truly thought the Brook fight was one that he couldn’t lose, he obviously would have accepted it years ago, because it would have given him a career-high payday. It would have given Khan more money than he’d make against Mayweather. With the way that Mayweather tends to tilt the purse splits in his favor, Khan probably wouldn’t make a ton of money fighting him. Khan would do much better facing Brook with a 50-50 purse split rather than taking a fight against Mayweather with a 90-10 split with him on the low end.
Mayweather has deteriorated a lot in the last 2 years. We saw that clearly in his win over McGregor on August 26. Mayweather looked like a 40-year-old man in that fight, as he slowly plodded forward, throwing shots that looked weak. The way Mayweather looked; he would lose to the top fighters at welterweight. Of course, Mayweather isn’t interested in fighting those guys, so it’s irrelevant. It would be great for Khan if he could face Mayweather and beat him, but it’s not likely to happen. Mayweather will come back for the money fight against McGregor if he returns to boxing at all. With the Nevada State Athletic Commission sanctioning Mayweather-McGregor as a real professional boxing fight like they did last August, Mayweather can go after win No.51, and further pad his record with another meaningless win.