By Marcus Richardson: Ricky Hatton wants to see former IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan succeed with his career, which is why Hatton is advising the 24-year-old Khan to steer clear of Floyd Mayweather Jr. until Khan gets his confidence back and picks up some more experience.
Khan lost to Lamont Peterson last month by a 12 round split decision but don’t consider it a real loss. Khan feels he would have and should have won the fight.
Khan told the dailystar.co.uk “I think a Mayweather fight would be too soon for Amir. He is just coming off of a defeat and does he really want to fight the number one fighter right now or later this year. I think Amir needs another two or three fights to get himself reestablished and get his confidence back. Then maybe he’ll fight the winner of the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight next year.”
Khan said earlier this week that he wants Mayweather at the end of the year in an interview at the BBC. How Khan could get a fight with Mayweather is the big question. Khan didn’t fight at all well in the Peterson loss, resorting to shoving, pulling down on his head and running to defeat his pressure.
If these are tactics that his trainer Freddie Roach has been teaching him, then Khan might want to look for a new trainer because he’s not going to be able to make career out of using those tactics to control pressure fighters. Khan had two points taken off for the shoving by referee Joe Cooper and deserved to be disqualified for the countless other shoves that he gave Peterson. Khan needs to learn how to fight before he takes on Mayweather because he’ll watch the Peterson-Khan fight and go right to Khan’s weakness to beat him.