Following the incredibly tepid performance and victory over Chris Algieri, Amir Khan once again put himself forward for a fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. and I cannot for the life of me understand why.
Amir Khan’s Quest for Greatness
Khan is quite clearly not on that level. Laboured victories against the likes of Devon Alexander, Luis Collazo, Julio Diaz and Carlos Molina do not in any way mask the flaws in Khan’s game. These flaws were exposed in the defeats to Breidis Prescott, Lamont Peterson and Danny Garcia (none of which he has avenged by the way!) and highlighted in victories over Paul McCloskey and Marcos Maidana.
At 5’9″, Amir Khan is on the larger size of Welterweights and many people in his camp always talk of his punching power. But with this being the case, why has he only scored 19 knockouts in 31 fights? Big punchers usually have a much higher KO percentage. It seems to me that Khan’s power is only evident in the early rounds and he doesn’t have the engine to call upon the big shots the longer the fight lasts. This seems to be backed up by the fact that he has rarely stopped anyone past the 5th round.
Now as a Brit, I want Khan to be successful but given the problems highlighted, Mayweather would have an absolute field day with him. I am not the biggest fan of Mayweather, but his ring footwork is truly balletic and I doubt Khan would be able to land in those early rounds leaving the later part of the fight firmly favours Floyd Mayweather.
I can understand him wanting the fight as Amir Khan has never really took off to the heights expected of him when he turned pro back in 2005, but this really isn’t the way to go. We saw with David Haye the dangers of making noise to raise your profile in order to fight the man at the top of the tree. When you have your limitations as Haye did at Heavyweight, a class fighter just takes you apart and it ends up looking pretty embarrassing. Khan’s career would not survive that. His chin has already been exposed, his stamina questioned (he looked like he was going to pass out in the final rounds against Maidana) and his profile is just not on the level required for a fight with Mayweather Jnr.
The fight he should take is Kell Brook. Again, Brook is a pretty large Welterweight, British, big puncher, undefeated but most importantly a world title holder. Why this fight hasn’t already been made is beyond me. Eddie Hearn has recently said that the Khan camp can have the fight completely on their terms. It would easily sell out Wembley stadium and I’m sure would eclipse the PPV numbers produced by Froch vs Groves II. Brook wants the fight and it would be electric as their styles would compliment each other. Unlike a fight with Mayweather Jnr in which I’m sure we’d see exactly the same fight and outcome as happened with Manny Pacquiao.
Amir Khan has a clear choice here. Chase the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow in Floyd Mayweather Jnr, or do what is right for British boxing. Get in the ring with Kell Brook. Either man loses then a re-match would surely take place with a possible decider. If that were to happen, I could almost guarantee that it would be the most explosive trilogy since Gatti vs Ward. If Amir Khan wants to be a star, this is the way to go. Chasing Mayweather Jnr around the ring for 12 rounds certainly isn’t. I fear his obsession with America is going to lead him to ignore Brook and the obvious which is, if you want a successful career, titles, riches, exposure and recognition, you don’t need the USA anymore. All of that can be found in one domestic opponent.
