Floyd Mayweather Jr (47-0, 26 KOs) is starting to show interest in facing British boxing star Amir Khan (29-3, 19 KOs) after listening to the fighter call him out for well over a year now. Mayweather says his father Floyd Sr really wants him to fight Khan to shut him up for good and he’s thinking about doing that.
Mayweather isn’t saying he’ll absolutely face him, but he says he wants to fight him if he feels he’s earned the fight.
Khan does have wins over Zab Judah, Paulie Malignaggi, Luis Collazo and Marcos Maidana. But Khan failed when he stepped it up against 1st tier fighters Lamont Peterson and Danny Garcia in 2011 and 2012.
Khan’s best wins have come against B level guys that didn’t have a complete game to beat him. Now that Khan’s with trainer Virgil Hunter, he appears to have improved his game enough to give Mayweather problems.
“My Dad wants the fight, I want to put him on his backside, so hopefully we can make it happen,” Mayweather said to the Dailymail.co.uk. “Dad is desperate for me to take – the Khan fight – he just wants me to shut the kid up and put him down. I am a far more intelligent fighter than him – and I could already tell you how I would beat him.”
A Mayweather-Khan fight would be a tossup at this point in Mayweather’s career. You can no longer assume he’s going to be able to beat a fighter like Khan or Keith Thurman after the way Mayweather fought against Maidana. Mayweather looked vulnerable in both of the Maidana fights, and this was against a guy with slow hands and feet.
Khan has fast hands, he’s tall and he moves around the ring at a fast pace. He’s good at shutting down his opponent’s offense with his clinching. He’s a lot like Kell Brook with the way he ties up his opponents. Mayweather would be forced to compete with his single shots against a fighter throwing fast combinations, and I think that’s a fight that Khan would likely win.
“My Dad doesn’t like fighters trash talking his son – but he knows as well as I do that if the fight happens – then I am going to punish him,” Mayweather said. “If he thinks he can trash talk me and get away with it he needs to think again.”
Khan has been trash talking Mayweather for the longest time and he’s got boxing fans believing what he’s saying now, especially after fans saw how Mayweather had problems against Maidana.
