SO Amir Khan won but really he lost and Marcos Maidana lost but he really won.
Maidana deserved his shot at Floyd Mayweather more than Khan did, but Khan might have posed the more searching questions in the ring.
Ultimately, however, after Floyd Mayweather asked the fans to vote in a poll on his website saying he would let the fans decide who he would fight next, he went with the minority vote and picked Maidana regardless of the figures in favour of the British star.
Why he went against the grain we will probably never know.
We will likely get soundbites about how Maidana, having beaten Floyd’s Lil Bro Adrien Broner and owning the WBA welterweight title, deserved his shot.
We might also be told that Maidana won a number of independent polls.
You can’t dispute that. Danny Garcia aside, it is hard to see a more deserving fighter among the Golden Boy ranks that Mayweather so enjoys feasting upon.
Yes, Khan defeated Maidana in a thriller in 2010 but that was four long years ago ? although, of course, that victory made the straight shootout between the two more complex.
Going in Maidana?s favour was not just the win over Broner, but that the fight will happen on the Hispanic holiday, Cinco de Mayo weekend, also known as Cinco de Mayweather in boxing parlance.
And Floyd?s ire was probably raised when an English newspaper reported the fight was on last October and again when Khan said he?d signed a contract for it earlier in the year.
No one breaks Mayweather?s news, even if it is someone else?s news. He dances to his own tune.
Khan?s enormous reach on social media would have helped keep him in the race, because Twitter, Shots and Instagram are languages Mayweather talks and he?s fluent in most of them.
When Mayweather announced he would be fighting Maidana on Monday night on his 37th birthday, he did so via social media.
A Khan fight can be resurrected later in the year providing Khan is gracious enough to get involved in the circus again. Money talks, though.
He, along with Mayweather, are the only two fighters who have multi-fight contracts with Showtime and a new plot line is already in play, with Khan playing the jilted lover on Twitter.
He deserved better, but whether or not he deserved the Mayweather fight is another matter.
Had he gone through with the Devon Alexander fight last year and won, he would have been in a position to apply pressure on Floyd as a beltholder. But, for whatever reason, he either did not back himself to win or he wasn?t being backed to win, and he relied on his own starpower to carry him over the finish line in negotiations. Dark horse Maidana went out there and fought for it.
And that decision paid off.
If Khan really wants the fight the best thing would be to let his actions do the talking for him, and do things the old fashioned way, earn his shot in the ring.
There are still many out there who think his fast hands, nimble footwork and Floyd?s lack of spectacular one-punch knockouts will make it an attractive fight, should it eventually happen.
But he must first show he belongs in the ring with Mayweather by defeating some of the sharks in the deep welterweight waters.
