By Ivan G. Goldman
Amir Khan, sick of waiting patiently for Floyd Mayweather to announce his opponent for May 3 in Las Vegas, now says publicly that Floyd is scared of him – and of Manny Pacquiao too.
Speaking to a reporter from The National, a media outlet headquartered in the United Arab Emirates, Khan said “Floyd is not the same fighter as he was three or four years ago. That’s why he picks slow fighters, because he doesn’t have the same movement as he used to.”
Khan then tweeted “Very disrespected by his (Floyd’s) team. Wasted my time”
Khan, who’s waited several months to get Mayweather’s signature on a contract, said he needs to get on with his career, and if Floyd doesn’t want to fight, “I don’t want to waste any more time.”
Khan’s camp said several weeks ago that the British fighter had signed his end of the contract. However, it always takes two to tango on a fight contract.
“I mean, don’t get me wrong, he is a great fighter, but he has dodged two of the quickest fighters in the business because he knows I can give him a headache,” Khan said, referring to himself and Pacquiao. Khan spoke from San Francisco, where he’s been training the last four weeks.
Earlier this month Mayweather said he would let fans decide whether he should fight Khan or Marcos Maidana. Khan’s fans won that twitter war, according to Team Mayweather, but since then there’s been not a peep from Floyd or his people. His publicist Kelly Swanson has, as usual, been doing a bang-up job of saying nothing.
Khan said he’s been less than impressed with Mayweather for years. “If you look at his last three or four fights … all of (the opponents) are slow, with no footwork, one-dimensional fighters,” he said. “He cherry-picks them, to make himself look good.” Mayweather’s last four fights, in chronological order, were against Victor Ortiz, Miguel Cotto, Robert Guerrero, and Canelo Alvarez. Mayweather, who turns 37 Monday, is 45-0 (26 KOs). Khan, ten years younger, is , 28-3 (19 KOs).
Khan even dumped on the way Mayweather presents himself in preflight reality programming. “He shows how big his house is, how many cars he has and how much money he has,” said the exasperated Khan.
When Mayweather quit HBO for Showtime, the new network gave him unprecedented control over how he is portrayed. He’s executive producer of the pre-fight series, which played sad music in the background while his employees told the camera he was innocent of the charges he pled guilty to after he beat and kicked his girlfriend in front of their children. His employees didn’t witness the beating and were only repeating what Mayweather told them. No one who was at the scene of the crime was interviewed about it on Showtime.
Showtime is a component of CBS, which is part of a network of companies controlled by billionaire Sumner Redstone, formerly Sumner Murray Rothstein..
Khan’s last fight was in April. He was supposed to fight Devon Alexander for the IBF welterweight title in December but passed on the fight. Clearly Team Khan feared he might lose to Alexander and therefore lose a possible shot against Mayweather in May.
Khan, while spilling insults about Floyd, also questioned his capabilities as a promoter. Khan said Khan-Mayweather could earn money in places such as Pakistan, the United Kingdom, India, and Dubai and said the two of them could do pre-fight publicity there but that such a marketing plan requires time to set up. Khan is a Muslim Englishman of Pakistani heritage. He generally conducts himself as a gentleman and doesn’t insult other fighters. It’s helped win him fans.
“I have spoken to the prime minister in Pakistan,” Khan told The National, “and they have even agreed to provide military security for the press tour there. That’s how big I can make this fight.”
Apparently Khan’s remark perturbed Floyd. His Number One assistant Leonard Ellerbe told FightHype.com shortly afterward, “When Floyd Mayweather makes up his mind on who he’s fighting, which he hasn’t yet, he will announce it to the world.”
The site, which never seems to ask Floyd or his pals any questions they don’t want asked, has lately been their mouthpiece to the world when they want to make something known. And apparently no one over at Hype asked Ellerbe what happened to the earlier Mayweather announcement that the fans could choose the opponent. Those are the kinds of questions that get your number deleted from Ellerbe’s phone.
Hype ominously added that such comments from Khan “are probably not going to help his cause when it comes to Mayweather making his final decision.”
Sick Justice: Inside the American Gulag, by New York Times best-selling author Ivan G. Goldman, was released in 2013 by Potomac Books, a University of Nebraska Press imprint. It can be purchased here.
