By Omar Al Raisi
Amir Khan is looking for an opponent for his first fight in 2015, and his options continue to shrink. Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao left Amir Khan in a bit of a limbo after the announcement of “The Fight,” the fight everyone was waiting for since the last 5 years.
Amir Khan was in talks with both Floyd and Manny’s camp before Floyd met Manny at a Miami Heat game. Things changed drastically after that.
Amir was in Dubai last week for an MMA event in which his charity “Amir Khan Foundation” was a partner. Amir told me that he has been in a tricky situation since his impressive performance against Devon Alexander, last December at the MGM Grand, Las Vegas.
He has become the victim of his own success in a way; he is having the “GGG effect” in the Welterweight division. Everyone is simply trying to avoid him. His speed, movement, and skills are just too good for anyone to take a risk.
“I sent two official offers out, one to Tim Bradley and the other to Miguel Cotto, but none of them have responded to me, I want the big fights in the Welterweight division” Khan said.
“I want the top guys, I’m here and I’m ready to fight them. My team and Al Haymon have been in negotiations, so lets see what happens. I want Bradley, Cotto or Marquez next.” he said
“I will be fighting on either 23rd or 30th of May in New York, the venue isn’t confirmed yet but we are looking at Barclays Centre or Madison Square Garden.” he said.
UAE boxer Eisa Al Dah, who is also a boxing promoter in the UAE and Middle East has been invited by Amir Khan’s team to possibly appear on his undercard in May. Negotiations are still ongoing.
Bradley and Cotto have both publicly expressed their interest in fighting Amir Khan, but behind the cameras, not so much. As we speak, there are two contract offers waiting to be signed to fight Khan.
The Kell Brook fight, which could possibly be the biggest ever fight in the UK, even better than the record breaking Carl Froch vs George Groves II and would sell the Wembley Stadium out easily, is a fight Khan wants, but not just yet.
Kell Brook and his promoter Eddie Hearn have been running their mouths off, but that’s not going to land them the big fight against Amir Khan. Amir has said many times and said again to this writer; Brook has to earn his right to fight him.
Eddie Hearn has been telling the media that he can offer Amir Khan his biggest payday of his career if he fights Kell Brook, but its actually Amir Khan who would do that for Kell. Kell Brook walked off with only 160,000 pounds for his last fight against Shawn Porter.
But that fight may just happen this summer if opponents keep ducking Amir Khan. Every other top welterweight division fighter (Lamont Peterson, Danny Garcia, Keith Thurman, Robert Guerrero) is fighting or fought in March and April. That leaves only Marquez, Bradley, Brook and Miguel Cotto at a catch weight of 155 lbs, with the condition that he puts his middleweight title on the line.
Keith “One Time” Thurman has recently called out Khan and labeled him “over-rated,” but Thurman doesn’t bring the big bucks and a fight against him wouldn’t be a sound business move. After all boxing is a business.
Amir Khan’s alliance with elusive boxing mogul supreme Al Haymon has been a game-changer for his career and Haymon wants to make Amir the “face of boxing” after Floyd Mayweather and a future PPV star.
Amir has told this writer lots of stories about Haymon, mostly positive ones. Al Haymon cares about boxing and especially his own boxers; he offers the highest money and exposure to them and never cheats them in any way. Amir Khan is reportedly making three times more with Al Haymon than he did previously
Amir is a free agent right now and he wants to stay that way for the near future, at least. He doesn’t have any long term deals with Showtime and is open to fight on NBC for Al Haymon’s just-launched Premier Boxing Championship.