WBC Silver welterweight champion, British superstar Amir Khan (30-3, 19 knockouts) stated on his wife’s YouTube channel on April 2 that his next opponent would be former WBO junior welterweight champion Chris Algieri.
“The next opponent will be Chris Algieri,” stated Khan.
Not so fast, partner. It turns out that Khan’s statements were not true. The deal has not been finalized. If Khan wants to be as active as he can in 2015, he has to fight in May. He attempted to land a fight against WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto. However, that possibility became an impossibility once Cotto scheduled his next bout for June 6.
As a devout Muslim, Khan requires approximately two weeks to prepare for Ramadan, on June 17. In an interview with BoxingScene.com, Khan added his preparations for Ramadan will commence immediately following May 30 if he manages to book a fight.
“I can’t fight in June because of Ramadan. I can’t fight and then go straight into Ramadan. I need a couple of weeks to prepare for Ramadan. Ramadan is tough, so I need a little break, so that’s why I’m fighting in May,” said Khan.
There is also the possibility of fighting former three-division world champion Adrien Broner. However, it may not happen as Broner has requested a catch-weight fight. Broner is a former WBA welterweight champion but moved back down to 140 after getting knocked down twice by Marcos Maidana en-route to losing his title by unanimous decision.
“We are also in talks with Broner, who we face-timed through a mutual friend. We said that a fight between us could be made so why not get it made. He said he was up for it, but I realized he may not be up for it when he said ‘I can’t do the fight at 147, let’s do it at 144 or 145.’,” added Khan.
“I thought that was strange because he’s calling me out and saying 147 – then why not stick to 147? I can’t go down to 145 or 144. I’m a 147 fighter. Obviously, it seems to me that he’s not interested in that because I can’t make 144.”
Maidana, along with current WBA welterweight champion Keith Thurman, were approached about a potential fight, but both turned it down. Maidana is planning on an August, or September return on Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions and Thurman recently defeated Robert Guerrero on March 7 and wasn’t interested in returning to the ring that fast.
Khan also admitted that Khan-Algieri is not official yet.
“Algieri has not been confirmed. He is one of the guys that we’re looking at. I wanted the Miguel Cotto fight, but now he’s with Roc Nation and he already has a date on June 6.”
Khan expressed his frustration with Eddie Hearn, who promotes IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook.
“Eddie Hearn and Kell Brook’s team are being disrespectful, saying that I’m fighting a bum. This guy (Algieri) is a former world champion. He’s beaten fighters like Emmanuel Taylor and Ruslan Provodnikov. He just fought Manny Pacquiao and went the full distance with him, with an A-plus fighter. I’ve never said no to a fighter, and the same goes for Kell Brook,” said Khan.
Like I stated in a previous article, Amir Khan should really invest in a public relations correspondent. This is the second time in a week that he has made statements that will have a pessimistic impact.
