Floyd Mayweather Jr. will likely be disappointing boxing fans by announcing that his next fight on May 3rd will be Amir Khan within the week. ESPN’s Brian Campbell is saying that it appears that Khan will be the guy that Mayweather Jr. will be facing next instead of Marcos Maidana or Danny Garcia.
Campbell is well aware that this will be a controversial pick due to Khan’s defeats to Danny Garcia and Lamont Peterson, but that won’t matter. Mayweather will be choosing him any way.
“Unless Money May has a secret plan he has yet to be leaked in any fashion or any way, Khan, all signs point to him as the next opponent for him,” Campbell said to ESPN. “He’s somewhat of a controversial pick if it ends up being him because, although very talented, Khan is coming off of a pair of losses in recent memory and he’s bounced back with two comeback fights. But really he’s not shown that he’s in his top form…So it’s really Khan or nothing at this point.”
Unless Mayweather is able to get past his problems in dealing with Top Rank in order to put a fight together with Manny Pacquiao later on in the year, it looks like Mayweather could find himself entering a period where he’s fighting less than interesting opponents.
Pacquiao has been in that same boat for quite some time, which is probably why we kept seeing his promoter Bob Arum match him against Juan Manuel Marquez. There just wasn’t anyone else there that Arum could put in with Pacquiao that the boxing public actually cared about once he got past Miguel Cotto, Antonio Margarito and Shane Mosley.
If Campbell is right, Mayweather will make easy work of Khan unless he’s gotten old overnight or he can’t solve Khan’s fighting style by timing him the way that Garcia and Breidis Prescott did in knocking him out.
The positive side of the Mayweather-Khan fight is that boxing fans will likely be able to see a Mayweather knockout, which is becoming a rare thing nowadays. It’s been 3 years since Mayweather last knocked somebody out in stopping Victor Ortiz. Khan will fight well until he gets blasted out, and for some boxing fans they’ll see as being worth the $70 they’ll be spending to watching the mismatch on Showtime pay-per-view.
