Amir Khan is again having the carrot of a megabucks fight with Floyd Mayweather Jnr dangled under his nose.
Mayweather, having won his boxer-of-the-generation fight with Manny Pacquiao, was asked who is left out there for him to beat.
The one-word reply: ‘Khan’.
Our lad from Bolton had taken a day-trip away from his own training camp near San Francisco to present himself at ringside in Las Vegas.
He has always believed he will inflict the first defeat of Mr Money’s career — ‘I really believe I have his number,’ Khan maintained — but, as in all things in boxing, it’s all in the timing.
Mayweather insisted he will fight one more time in September before it’s time to ‘hang up the gloves’.
If so, Khan, a devout Muslim, would have to seek a religious dispensation to curtail his observance of Ramadan. Otherwise he would not have time to prepare fully for the biggest night of his career.
Khan may be even more reluctant to compromise his faith, given that Mayweather has promised to fight him twice before…only to pull the carrot away at the last moment.
With Pacquiao considering his future, the likelier option appears to be a late November or early December fight with the PacMan in Abu Dhabi, for which a substantial offer is already on promoter Bob Arum’s table.
‘I think the fight is there,’ Khan told Radio 5 Live. ‘I spoke to Len Ellerbe, his manager. I saw him in the media room and he came over to say “Hi...he’s ready when you are”.
‘I think Mayweather’s team are wanting the fight. But then, on the other hand, I’ve even spoken to Manny’s team and they said the same thing. (They said) “Look Amir, I think it’d be good to have the fight between you and Manny next”.
‘I think Mayweather’s the one I want because I really believe I have his number.’
The 28-year-old from Bolton, who returns to New York later this month to take on Chris Algieri on May 29, added: ‘I’m ready for whatever Mayweather wants. I think it would be an amazing fight because I really believe size is a big factor between me and him and the speed and the power as well.’
Khan, noting Mayweather is 10 years older than him, added: ‘They need someone young to fight, like myself, to come on board and maybe push Mayweather and stick him in the trenches and to also not show that respect.’ – Daily Mail