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Floyd Mayweather JR NEXT OPPONENT – MANNY PACQUIAO: Amir Khan the Pawn – Boxing News

By Geno McGahee

The undisputed best fighter in the game, Floyd Mayweather, JR., 45-0, 26 KO’s, is seeking an opponent and there are two names that are being thrown around with regularity. The supposed front runner is the British superstar, Amir Khan, 28-3, 19 KO’s, and Filipino superstar, Manny Pacquiao, 55-5-2, 38 KO’s. Out of these two, which is the better choice and what is the big plan of Money Mayweather?

Amir Khan, at one time, was one of the fastest rising boxers in the game. His power and personality put him into the mix with Pacquiao and Mayweather before he earned the spot. The high profile fights and expectations led to a let down when he faced opponents that would fight back.

To the credit of Khan, he has recorded some good victories, although many were over spent forces. He battered an old Marco Antonio Barrera (TD-5), stopped Zab Judah (TKO-5), and was one of the few that knocked out Paulie Malignaggi (TKO-11). The biggest feather in his hat was that he survived Marcos Maidana (UD-12). He showed his grit and his power, knocking Maidana down in the first round with a left hand to the body.

Unfortunately for Khan, he wasn’t able to deal with an ambitious Lamont Peterson and dropped a decision to him, although a dirty test for Peterson and some questionable officiating helped erase that defeat. The defeat in his next fight to Danny Garcia wasn’t as easy to forget. In the fourth round, Khan was stopped.

Since the defeat to Garcia, Khan has put together two victories but they were not scintillating. He barely got past Julio Diaz in his last fight, eking by on the scorecards. It is not the fight that you want heading into the biggest fight of your life with Mayweather JR and it’s not the fight that gets the fans excited, which is why I don’t think that we’ll see this fight at all. Khan is a pawn.

Manny Pacquiao has only won one of his last three fights and it was over the unskilled brawler, Brandon Rios. Amazingly, the Pacquiao groupies that write began to sing that the king had returned. He didn’t miss a beat! He was the old Pacquiao. It was nonsense. He is still the spent force that was sent face-first into the canvas by Juan Manuel Marquez, but forget that because the super fight that should have happened in 2009 is most likely coming soon. It’s too little too late but the hype machine that will spin as the promotion begins will try to convince you otherwise.

With the recent spree of attacks over Twitter and Facebook, Floyd Mayweather, JR., is making it clear what the target is once again. Now that he’s holding all of the cards, negotiations should be much easier with the PacMan and we should see this fight happen in 2014 and most likely it will be each fighter’s next fight.

The fans have waited so long for this match, but the interest is still there. The amount of people predicting a Pacquiao win have shrunk immensely, but there will be those die-hard Manny fans that believe that it will be a thing of destiny. He beat Oscar De La Hoya when nobody thought he could. Why should this be any different?

There aren’t many worlds left for Mayweather JR to conquer without moving up in weight again. At 36, he’s not a young fighter anymore and can’t beat father time forever. A Pacquiao fight is the right fight. It’s the least amount of risk for the most amount of money and the PPV will be incredibly successful…much more so than a Khan meeting.

Expect to see more public jabs between the two fighters and more of this “Amir Khan is next” talk. In the end, the fight will be Mayweather JR vs. Pacquiao, and it will be a one-sided beating, but it will sell like hot cakes.

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