By Scott Gilfoid: Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix is reporting that the much talked about fight between Amir Khan (28-3, 19 KO’s) and Floyd Mayweather Jr. (45-0, 26 KO’s) is basically a done deal, and that it should be announced by next week. That fight, of course, will be taking place in Las Vegas, Nevada on May 3rd, the Cinco de Mayo holiday weekend.
A good fight, this is not. This is more like a good mismatch, and I think it’s going to do really poorly until Khan go show more personality to overcome his recent lack of success in the ring. Golden Boy Promotions won’t be able to sell this mismatch to the U.S public unless Khan can go on a medial blitz to where he has the casual boxing fans believing that he’ll be able to give Mayweather a good fight. But just based on how Khan has looked in his last four fights, he stands no chance against Mayweather and a lot of fans could feel upset at how one-sided this fight will be.
Mannix said:
Still, I'm told Mayweather-Khan is a done deal. A U.S. fight. Announcement could come as early as next week.
— Chris Mannix (@ChrisMannixSI) December 4, 2013
Mayweather is going to have to really work hard to try and attract interest in this fight, because he can’t just sit back passively and hope that Khan’s interviews alone and a All Access series by Showtime will be enough to get fans interested in this mismatch. Khan has lost 2 out of his last 4 fights, and how do you get fans interested in a fight involving him? Khan hasn’t fought a good fighter since he was knocked out by Danny Garcia last year. The only reason he won his last two fights is because Golden Boy Promotions backed him off from fighting quality competition and matched him weak against the obscure Carlos Molina and the way past his prime Julio Diaz.
It’s just too bad that Khan didn’t take the fight December 7th fight against IBF welterweight champion Devon Alexander instead of turning it down, because he could in theory be going into the Mayweather fight with a good win over Alexander and a world title belt in his possession.
It would have been perfect. Boxing fans would have forgiven Khan in part for his losses to Lamont Peterson, Breidis Prescott and Danny Garcia, and they’d be a heck of a lot more interested in seeing him fight Mayweather than they are now. But instead Khan chose not to take the risky fight against Alexander, and instead he’s coming into the fight with Mayweather off the backs of a win over little known 2nd tier lightweight Carlos Molina and a past his prime Julio Diaz, who fought well known to deserve a win over Khan last April.
Just on the Diaz fight alone, I don’t think Khan deserves a fight against Mayweather. Diaz dropped Khan in the 4th round, and had him staggering around the ring ready to be knocked out in the 8th. Khan was ready to be stopped yet again, but Diaz didn’t have the youth to finish him off. Had that been a good welterweight in the ring with Khan instead of a past his prime former lightweight champion Diaz, I think Khan would have been knocked out.
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