Never at a loss for words, Roger Mayweather offered his thoughts about a possible Floyd Mayweather vs Amir Khan bout.
Roger, the uncle and trainer of WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. (45-0, 26KOs) and a former world champion himself, believes it makes more sense for Floyd to fight Khan in May.
The unabashed uncle told Hustle Boss’ Chris Robinson:
“[Fighting Maidana] is okay, but I think Amir Khan would be a bigger fight.”
“[Does he deserve the fight], not really. But, he’s the only guy who really has a name where you could put it on [Showtime].” “For the networks, you need to have a guy who could [produce]….in order to get that television. [You need] to get television [viewers] to watch it,” Roger Mayweather said.
Although Marcos Maidana’s name has been bantered around by Showtime execs, Amir Khan is still thought to be the leading candidate to face Floyd Mayweather in May.
Given his lucrative, mind-blowing six-fight deal with Showtime, Mayweather is under a lot of pressure to generate tremendous revenue for the network.
Moreover, at this level a fighter’s deservability to face the sport’s biggest star is far less consequential than his profitability.
Floyd Mayweather vs Robert Guerrero last May was disappointing because, despite Robert’s placement on RING Magazine’s prestigious pound-for-pound list and the fact he was red hot in the boxing community at the time, the challenger had a small fan base and the fight failed to generate interest beyond boxing’s hardcore contingent.
That is, perhaps, what Roger was referring to. Khan certainly has leverage over Maidana in name recognition and enjoys a much larger large fanbase
The question is: Will that translate into dollars?
Some will argue Mayweather should wait until Maidana’s name gets bigger and fight him when the Argentine brings a little more to the table financially. After all, a PPV’s success is determined more by the level of interest of casual fans as they far outnumber hardcore junkies.
