While boxing fans have been getting really excited about the poll on Floyd Mayweather’s website Mayweatherpromotions.com that let fans vote for his next opponent on May 3rd in a choice between Amir Khan and Marcos Maidana, this poll is seen as a just a way for Mayweather to take himself out of the target area for criticism from fans when/if he selects Khan as his next opponent.
As you might already know, Mayweather have received a tremendous amount of criticism about the idea floated about him fighting Khan on May 3rd instead of the more deserving WBA welterweight champion Maidana. Fans don’t want Khan to get the fight because he’s lost half of his last four fights, looked bad in all of them, and turned down a fight against Devon Alexander last December that he could have used to to redeem himself.
Khan appeared to think he had the Mayweather fight in his pocket, and so he said no to the Alexander fight. The problem is that without a win over Alexander, Khan has no real victories over quality opponents since his win over Zab Judah in 2011. Khan’s last two victories have come against an over-the-hill Julio Diaz and little known lightweight named Carlos Molina.
“Fans are already perceiving the poll to be rigged where Khan will be the eventual winner so that it gives Mayweather some cover for picking an unpopular opponent [Khan] for his next fight,” writer Chip Dee at sportsnews24.com said.
So is the winner of the Khan-Maidana poll a predetermined one with Khan ending up as the eventual winner even if Maidana wins the vote? I guess we have no way of knowing, because the poll isn’t being controlled by an outside agency. It’s at Mayweather’s website. So without having an outside company in control of the poll, it’s impossible to know for sure whether Maidana was given a fair shake in the poll.
Dan Rafael of ESPN sees the Khan vs. Maidana poll as little more than a publicity stunt and nothing more than that. He doesn’t see it as having any real say so for who Mayweather will eventually fight on May 3rd. Rafael doesn’t say who he believes will be the one selected by Mayweather for the fight, but it’s likely that he sees Khan as being the one that will be ultimately be given the fight.
It would be quite sad if the poll was created just to make Mayweather not look like the bad guy for fighting Khan instead of the arguably more deserving Maidana. Mayweather should do the right thing and select Maidana based on him being the busier fighter than Khan in the last couple of years, and having accomplished more than him. Maidana beat Adrien Broner to capture the WBA welterweight title last December. Khan has been beaten by Lamont Peterson and Danny Garcia, and he hasn’t beaten anyone good since his win over Judah in 2012. Golden Boy Promotions stepped Khan back from quality opposition by matching him against Molina and Julio Diaz in order to get Khan to stop losing. It worked for Khan, because he beat both guys, but these weren’t quality welterweights. Molina is a lightweight, and Diaz’s best days took place a decade ago.
