COMMENTARY | I guess it could be worse. Floyd Mayweather could be scheduled to fight a Kardashian sister or George Zimmerman.
For those who don’t know, Amir Khan has beaten Marcos Maidana in the fan poll on the main page of Mayweather Promotions’ website to determine Mayweather’s next opponent. Most surprising was the ease with which Khan won in a poll that was neck and neck for much of the week. Final totals have the boisterous Brit beating the heavy-handed Argentine by 4,631 votes (57% to 43%) in a poll that generated 35,579 total votes, although a None of the Above option may have trumped both Khan and Maidana had it been included.
Team Mayweather will likely swear up and down that this was on the level and it probably was, at least on their side of the screen. But everyone knows just how easily-manipulated online polls can be and how, really, the cards were stacked against Maidana from the very beginning. It’s not hard to see how a legitimate international name, like Khan, with 1.7 million Twitter followers could get more of the popular vote than a lower-profile fighter like Maidana with a comparatively small hardcore fan base.
So, it’s assumed that Mayweather, who initiated the fan poll idea to determine his May 3 opponent last week via social media, will make his decision official at some point this coming week.
In the name of business, Khan was really the only viable option and there’s little doubt that he was the favorite of Team Mayweather for that very reason. Simply put, Khan will sell more pay-per-views and deliver a bigger share of the coveted European market than Maidana. One gets the feeling that Team Mayweather would not have even proposed the poll had they felt that Maidana had a chance of taking the popular vote.
Now that it’s apparently close to being made official, Mayweather vs. Khan gives fans the opportunity to vote in the ultimate fan poll by choosing whether or not to purchase the event.
Like anything, though, it’s possible to find a silver lining in this dark cloud.
Khan is fast and as athletically gifted as anyone Mayweather has fought. Considering that Mayweather is slowing down as a fighter just about two weeks from his thirty-seventh birthday, it’s totally possible that the 27-year-old Khan may be the only fighter in the division with the raw ability to catch him. Khan, who at one point was considered a world class fighter, earned that distinction due to his tremendous raw physical ability. Stylistically, it could even be argued that Khan is a tougher match-up for Mayweather than the slow-footed, bomb-throwing Maidana.
Still, it’s hard to defend Amir Khan as a main stage opponent for the world’s best boxer. Fan reaction on social media and on boxing message boards is almost universally negative, despite the final results of the Mayweather Promotions fan vote.
Fans are right to reject Amir Khan as an opponent for Floyd Mayweather. He doesn’t deserve this bout and it’s simply not worth $60-$70 to see if maybe, possibly, an undeserving opponent can do the impossible and create a magical moment.
Maybe down the line, after a couple of solid wins against some real competition, Khan could reenter the picture. He’s not there now, especially after seeing just how frazzled and fragile he has been in his two most recent bouts, which were supposed to be confidence-boosting tune-ups after back-to-back losses.
If Khan is next, Mayweather-Khan will be nowhere near as interesting as the matching of wills between Team Mayweather and a public that is rightfully skeptical about this cynical choice of opponent for boxing’s biggest star.
