Boxing: Khan needs the Mayweather fight

By William Mackay: If Amir Khan is still set on wanting to get a big payday fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. before he retires from the sport, Khan is going to have to step it up and suffer no more setbacks like his recent loss to Lamont Peterson and his 1st knockout loss to Breidis Prescott.Mayweather could be retiring soon, and he simply doesn’t have time to wait for Khan to turn his career around and slowly his way into the 147 pound division. If Khan really wants the Mayweather fight, he’s going to have jump in and sink or swim in the welterweight division. Mayweather might not be around if Khan feels needs a couple of tune-up bouts at 147 to get used to the weight. Khan has been talking about a dream fight with Mayweather for ages now, seeing it as the ideal career defining fight for him. Unfortunately, the interest has been one-sided as Mayweather has shown no interest in fighting the still little known Khan. He did make a comment recently that he didn’t like Khan’s fighting style, thought he ran too much and felt he should have been disqualified in his loss to Lamont Peterson last December. Khan lost the fight by a 12 round decision, but did a lot of running and pushed off on Peterson continuously when he was trying to work on the inside. Khan said this to thesun.co.uk “Mayweather is certainly one of the best fighters in the world. But I am not looking past Peterson because he too is a very, very tough fighter.” You can say that again. Peterson did a number on Khan last December, pressuring him and sending Khan into what appeared to be a near panic with his running, shoving and pulling down on Peterson’s head all night long. Khan eventually lost two points for the shoving, as the referee tired of Khan’s tactic to try and keep Peterson from being able to fight in close. Shoving is done by some fighters who don’t fight well on the inside, but it’s not supposed to be the main line of defense. If a fighter can’t fight on the inside, he usually moves around to avoid the better inside fighter, but shoving is something that should only rarely if ever used. Khan will be facing Peterson in a rematch on May 19th at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. If Khan loses this fight, he can forget all about Mayweather. Even if he wins it, there’s still not much chance of him getting a fight against Mayweather, especially if Khan shoves, runs and pulls down on Peterson’s head all night. Mayweather likely won’t be interested in an opponent that fights like that unless he’s got a good referee ready to take points off for Khan’s fouling.