Two years ago, when Amir Khan beat Zab Judah to become the IBF and WBA Light Welterweight champion, it was reasonable to talk about him having a fight with Floyd Mayweather once he moved up to Welterweight. But almost two years have gone by, and the two fighters are in very different places, making the suggestions about a potential fight between them seem quite ridiculous.
Amir Khan has moved up the rankings lately after a rough patch, which included a loss to Lamont Peterson which should have been a win for him, but fighting in Washington DC is never a good idea. Later, he was knocked out by Danny Garcia after getting the WBA title back from Peterson, who had tested positive for performance enhancing drugs.
Khan changed trainers, and went on a new road. Instead of completely conquering Light Welterweight, he had to rebuild his brand by almost beginning from scratch. He beat Carlos Molina with an impressive 10-round TKO before making his first UK appearance since April 2011 last weekend facing Julio Diaz, beating the Mexican fighter after 12 rounds, probably getting a little bit of help from the referees.
Meanwhile, Floyd Mayweather is still undefeated. The last time Khan was talking about fighting Mayweather, ‘Money’ told him he needs to win a few more fights before he can dream about stepping in the ring with him. Mayweather’s last fight was on May of last year, beating Miguel Cotto before heading off to prison. Mayweather is now due to fight Robert Guerrero for the WBC Welterweight title and the vacant Ring Welterweight title belt.
After Guerrero? Assuming Mayweather wins, there are a lot of speculations. The most popular one is Saul Alvarez and a fight for the Light Middleweight title belts. That might be the most lucrative fight financially, but it doesn’t mean Mayweather is going to take it. He’s going to fight in September, but he’d rather fight a big name he’s positive he can beat.
I will fight in September. My main focus right now is Robert. It’s like I was telling Kevin Iole, everybody wants to fight me. I just want to focus and take it one fight at a time. If that fight with Khan presents itself in the future, that will happen. Right now I just want to focus on the guy in front of me. I didn’t say that a fight with Khan was a possibility.
The last time I faced a guy from the UK he was undefeated and we took him to the doghouse and you saw what happened. I told Khan before too, ‘just take your time. If you get here, you will get hereRight now my focus is the guy right in front of me. After that I don’t know what’s next. We try to take it one fight at a time.