Underdog Boxing: Khan-Mayweather is definitely the next best thing

“I think Amir is going to get to Floyd before Manny." This was something Freddie Roach told me while training his prized pupils in Baguio earlier this year. Manny Pacquiao was preparing for his fight against Shane Mosley while Amir Khan went all the way to the Philippines to prepare for Paul McCloskey. The two fighters shared the modest confines of Shape-Up Boxing Gym of Baguio City with Pacquiao taking the early afternoons and Khan following after him. Well, it looks like Roach had it spot on, again. Khan dispatched Zab Judah in the fifth round of their fight in Las Vegas with a borderline punch in the mid-section. With that win, Khan unified the WBA and IBF belts in the light welterweight division. He has a handful of possible opponents, the first on the list is WBO and WBC light welterweight champion Timothy Bradley, but a fight against the flamboyant Floyd Mayweather is a definite possibility. Why? Because there are a less hurdles for a Khan-Mayweather fight compared to Pacquiao-Mayweather. The first reason is that Pacquiao and Mayweather both claim to be the best fighter in the world. They are both huge draws and their fights often sell more than a million pay-per-views. Because of this, Pacquiao and Mayweather both want a bigger piece of the pie in terms of the money generated from the fight. They also aren’t keen on letting the other dictate the terms of the fight because they feel they are superior to each other. Even if Khan makes much less money compared to Mayweather, it will still be bigger than what he has made in his past fights. Khan will also let Mayweather dictate the terms because the American is by far the bigger draw. To put it simply, Khan will fight Mayweather for free if he has to just for the chance of beating him and stealing his thunder. The second reason is that Khan is under the Golden Boy Promotions banner. Even though Oscar de la Hoya’s company and Bob Arum’s Top Rank Promotions seemed to have called an end to boxing’s version of the Cold War, it will still be easier for Mayweather to sign up on a fight against a Golden Boy Promotions fighter. The third reason is that Mayweather may want a fight with Khan more than he wants a fight against Pacquiao. Khan is still an unfinished fighter even though he has improved by leaps and bounds since hiring Roach. Both Pacquiao and Khan have speed that can cause trouble for Mayweather but Pacquiao has more pop in his punches. The boxing public will still buy into this fight because Khan is looked at by most as a future member of the top echelons of boxing. There are still a lot of factors to be settled before this fight can happen. For starters, Mayweather needs to come out victorious against Victor Ortiz in their match. Khan-Mayweather may not be as big a match as Pacquiao-Mayweather but it will definitely be accepted as a mega-fight by the boxing world. Lots of people say that Khan fights similarly to Pacquiao and if the powers that be do not allow the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight from happening, having Khan-Mayweather is definitely the next best thing. - OMG, GMA News