Britain's Amir Khan believes he will be ready to fight American great Floyd Mayweather within a year. And Khan says he has the backing of sparring partner Manny Pacquiao, who was set to fight Mayweather this year before negotiations broke down. Khan, 23, defends his WBA light-welterweight crown against Argentina's Marcos Maidana on 11 December. "In the next 12 months, [Mayweather] will be an ideal fight for me. It's definitely one I'd fancy," said Khan. "Manny thinks it will be a good fight because he's trained with me, sparred with me, he really thinks I'm good enough to fight Mayweather now. "But I think in the next 12 months, when I get even better and with more experience, I think I'll be in better condition to fight him then. This content is protected 606: DEBATE This content is protected "This is a timing game and I want to fight him when I think I'm ready, not when he's ready and I'm not. I want to fight him when we're both ready and when I've hit my peak." Khan has regularly sparred with Philippine superstar Pacquiao since joining up with the same trainer, Freddie Roach, following his knockout at the hands of Breidis Prescott in September 2008. Since then Khan has moved up a division, won the WBA belt and defended it twice, last time out against Paulie Malignaggi in New York in May. However, the 27-year-old Maidana has 27 knockouts from 29 fights and is likely to pose greater problems than the light-punching American. Apparently this has not prevented five-weight world champion Pacquiao from encouraging his friend to dream of a possible match with Mayweather, while Khan says his American promoters are also keen to see the fight happen. "Richard Schaefer [chief executive of Golden Boy Promotions, who also staged Mayweather's most recent fights] says it's a fight of the future," said Khan. "It's a fight he wants to see made and he thinks I've got the style to beat Mayweather. He says he hasn't said that to many people." Talks between Pacquiao and Mayweather broke down in January after Pacquiao refused Mayweather's demands for random blood and urine tests. Thoughts on this? i personally cant see Khan beating Floyd and think he will get put on his ass like prescott fight. within 7 rounds G
For it to be a competitive fight the following needs to happen: Khan conquering the 140 division convincingly. Khan naturally progessing into the 147 division Once Khan is in the 147 division, he needs to have one or two fight to prove equally as effective there Mayweather declining 20-30%. I don't see all of the above occurring within 12 months.
totally agree with you there mate, i think he should fight prescott again imo see how he gets on. but like you said above it aint going to hapen in 12 months. G
Prescott is a thing of the past. It's no longer a requirement to beat him, as it'll prove nothing. Maidana is twice the fighter he is, and beating him would be more than enough.
Fair point mate, but personally if it was me id want to beat a bloke he put me down in first round twice, but yeah i see what your saying. makes sense to beat someone better than him. G
Back when Khan was being matched with Barrera, Kotelnik and Salita, he himself did show desire to avenge the defeat. But I guess his handlers (Roach and GBP) must have told him to forget about him and move on due to the risk/reward aspect. But I admit though, it would have been nice to see him get his revenge.
Prescott could be a good keep busy fight. If Khan has 3 or 4 fights a year, 2 or 3 of them could be challenging fights against the likes of Ortiz, Bradley, Alexander etc and 1 of them could be Prescott. After Khan beat Malignaggi he was supposed to have a keep busy fight like 2 months later. That would have been a good time to put right his first defeat. It's not really neccesary like Rico says but still would be nice to know that you did eventuall get revenge and beat everyone you faced. Prescott is a terrible boxer but I guess there is always a slight danger that the memories of the first fight could come flooding back and make Khan freeze. That's probably why it won't happen but I personally think it would be an easy payday and keep busy fight that allows him to put right his mistakes in the first fight.