Amir Khan increased his chances of having a mega-fight with boxing superstar Floyd Mayweather when he defeated Chris Algieri last night at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York on the Premier Boxing Champions card that aired on Spike. Two judges scored the fight 117-111, while one judge had the fight similar to my judgment, 115-113, all for Khan, the unanimous winner. Amir spoke about his PBC debut after the fight. “My first show with PBC has been great. The New York crowd was awesome and really got into it. The promotion was excellent and I’m proud to be a part of this team,” he said.
So was last night’s victory by King Khan impressive enough for him to be selected as the next opponent for Floyd Mayweather? For his opponent, Algieri and his trainer former two-time champion John David Jackson, the answer was no. “I thought I hurt him several times, but Khan’s a cagey fighter and he spins off. I guess the judges liked that tonight. I would think the cleaner, harder shots would get a little more respect,” Algieri said. Jackson, meanwhile, said directly that the Khan victory wasn’t impressive enough to land a fight with Mayweather.
Khan disagreed. “Everyone knows I want Floyd (Mayweather) next after all the talk about it, but when you wait and hope for something for this long it can set you back. I don’t want to overlook any other fighters, including Chris,” he said. On Wednesday at the final press conference, Khan was accused of overlooking Algieri and being focused on a fight with Mayweather, but he proved otherwise in the ring.
Khan, of course, was rumored to be Floyd Mayweather’s opponent over a year ago but Money chose to fight Marcos Maidana in May 2014 instead of Amir. So has King Khan earned an opportunity to meet Money Mayweather in the ring? Floyd said earlier this month that he plans to fight in September after his win over Manny Pacquiao, but he also said he reserves the right to change his mind. If Mayweather doesn’t find an opponent that pleases him, look for him to wait until May 2016 to next step into the ring for the last fight on his $400 million deal with CBS/Showtime. The boxing world awaits, and anxiously, so does Amir Khan.
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