Amir Khan at 147: Possible Opponents Not Name Shane Mosley
by CollegeDropIn on Jan 24, 2012 3:08 PM EST
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If the rematch between Lamont Peterson and Amir Khan can't be made, and all indications suggest that it probably won't be made, at least not at the 140 pound limit, then Amir Khan will most likely pursue opponents in the welterweight division. One name was thrown out there as a possible Khan opponent and that was ageless blunder Shane Mosley. Now, I say "blunder" in my description of his recent outing against the two best pound for pound fighters in the world. One shouldn't dismiss losing to the two best fighters in the world; however the way in which Mosley lost is another story. Against Mayweather he looked old, shot, and stiff, against Pacquiao he had some early moments but soon realized it's better to avoid confrontation than to be on the receiving end of a Manny Pacquiao knockout punch.
The idea of a Khan/Mosley fight doesn't sit well with me for obvious reasons, chief among them being the fact that Shane Mosley hasn't looked impressive since he destroyed Antonio Margarito. Now, Margarito was made for Mosley stylistically but the same cannot be said for Amir Khan. Khan would use his speed and combinations to overwhelm Mosley and if you thought he looked old compared to a 34 year old Floyd Mayweather and a 32 year old Manny Pacquiao, one could imagine how ancient he'd look compared to the 25 year old from Bolton. I'd much rather Khan make his welterweight debut against the winner of the Andre Berto/Victor Ortiz rematch, or perhaps the winner of Kell Brook/Matthew Hatton, which in all honesty makes the most sense because it’s an all British affair. Don't forget you have the winner of Devon Alexander/Marcos Maidana as well.
Whatever happens I just hope Shane Mosley isn't involved because the time has come for accepting the obvious really. Mosley is beyond any stretch of a notion of being a serious contender much less one half of a major important fight in boxing. His name alone gets him the opportunity to hang around and call out guys like Canelo Alvarez but if he loses his next fight against whomever, no doubt a big name, then his name will have lost its negotiating power. Once again I hope this fight doesn't happen because it would be a complete waste of money and would have Amir Khan running through yet another expired former champion (i.e. Zab Judah).
My guess is they want Khan to look good against Mosley to make a statement at the new weight; the fight would be in Khan's back yard as a bone for not landing the rematch with Lamont Peterson. All in all this bodes well for Amir Khan who wants to reestablish himself as one of the rising super stars in boxing. I just feel as though reestablishing himself against Shane Mosley is the wrong way to go for Khan. I know it's Shane Mosley, but it's not the Shane Mosley from the early 2000s.
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I’m still waiting on the Bradley fight
"Winning is Everything"
Failure is not an Option
If you're not first, you're last
And we have all been waiting for Manny & Floyd
#Don’tGetYourHopesUp
by Sweet science on Jan 24, 2012 6:35 PM EST up reply actions
GBP star + TR star = never going to happen
GBP star + GBP fighter = signed fight
TR star + TR fighter = Signed fight
GBP star + GBP star = Might happen/Likely
TR star + TR star = Fight needs to simmer
Four legs good, two legs better
"The bell that tolls for all in boxing belongs to a cash register."
-Bob Verdi
by Waldo Rastel on Jan 24, 2012 8:11 PM EST up reply actions
<a href=“http:// href=”http://www.gifbin.com/985325">
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by CollegeDropIn on Jan 24, 2012 8:35 PM EST up reply actions
Waldo just dropped some knowledge on you man, take notes (BTW, everything he said is completely true)
When posting a gif
Please say something in the header, so that it can be minimized.
Bad Left Hook - The SB Nation boxing blog
"Baseball is played on the field, not on a calculator."
Animal Farm reference….
"The bell that tolls for all in boxing belongs to a cash register."
-Bob Verdi
by Waldo Rastel on Jan 26, 2012 5:55 PM EST up reply actions
Honestly
If it’s not Mosley, it will probably be someone even worse.
The best option, Kell Brook, isn’t available because he fights Matthew Hatton on March 17. And the most likely option, Matthew Hatton, isn’t available because he fights Kell Brook on March 17. Marcos Maidana and Devon Alexander aren’t available because they’re fighting each other. Andre Berto and Victor Ortiz aren’t available because they’re fighting each other. Mike Jones and Randall Bailey aren’t available because they’re fighting each other, for a vacant belt no less. And obviously it wouldn’t be Pacquiao or Mayweather coming off a loss. The big players from the last wave of welters (Cotto, Margarito, Clottey) all have moved up to 154 and aren’t available anyway because they’re with Top Rank.
That basically wipes out more than half of the top 20 at welterweight as possibilities, and wipes out pretty much anyone with name recognition. So just for fun, let’s just look at the rest of the Boxrec top 25 (I know it’s not the best rankings in the world, but these are the primary possibilities) plus a couple others to see whether they’re any better than Mosley:
Mosley – Already covered. By far the biggest name available, but is shot
Carson Jones – Having a good run of wins and has decent power, but optically it would look bad if he starts with an 8 loss fighter, plus he has no name, plus it’s probably not actually a good fight.
Vyacheslav Senchenko – Has yet to fight anyone who isn’t a mandatory, so I just doubt it. Now that he’s with K2, it’s even less likely. Plus nobody knows who he is other than a random titlist. Sort of akin to Berto fighting Zaveck, but worse.
Leonard Bundu – A 37 year old Italian with no name recognition.
Brad Solomon – Good U.S. prospect, no name recognition. It would be a more competitive fight, maybe, but not a better one. Solomon doesn’t pack much punch, and I suspect this would look a lot like Khan-Kotelnik.
Selcuk Aydin – Wouldn’t even be an option if not for two hometown robberies against Jo Jo Dan. Probably the kind of fighter GBP would want Khan to face – slow, tiny arms, overstated power and very basic. That said, he still has no name recognition, and Ahmet Oner has been notoriously difficult to deal with when it comes to Aydin. Less competitive than Mosley, IMO.
Antonin Decarie – Not too dissimilar to Solomon with most of the same pros and cons, only probably not quite as good as Solomon. Makes no sense unless they’re trying to set up a bigger fight with someone Canadian.
Jan Zaveck – Probably the best legitimate option. Some people know him now after a decent performance against Berto.
Chris Van Heerden – I follow the sport pretty damn closely, and even I have no idea who he is. I guess he nicked one against Kaizer Mabuza his last time out.
Sebastian Lujan – Has a little name recognition, but anyone who’s seen him fight knows he’s still not as good as shot Mosley. That said, it would be an easy fight to make – GBP has set up fights with Lujan before, he doesn’t make unreasonable demands, and it would get him back in line for a title shot quickly after losing his last one to Mike Jones badly. Very easy fight for Khan, great style matchup for him.
Naofel Ben Rabah – Not a bad fighter, past his prime, carries little power and even less name recognition. Even in his prime, didn’t possess the strength or craftiness to trouble Khan.
Colin Lynes – 9 loss domestic fighter. He would have stayed with Frank Warren if he wanted fights like this.
Wale Omotoso – No name recognition. Maybe a better fight than Mosley, but who knows. I love his tools – he’s big, has good speed, good power, probably is the most athletic guy in the weight class, but still learning how to fight and reportedly struggled his last time out. He just signed a US promotional contract, and I doubt they want to throw him to the lions just yet.
Said Ouali – Sort of like Naofel Ben Rabah with a little more name recognition. I guess there’s the Muslim-Muslim angle if they want to play that up (I’d like to think they have more taste than that, but I doubt they actually do – this is boxing), and that Ouali is trained by Floyd Sr. if he’s targeting Floyd, but that’s about it. But here’s a guy who’s already lost (or should have lost) to three of the guys I’ve already mentioned. Also, it makes NO sense for Khan to fight a southpaw if he’s not open to targeting Pacquiao.
Yoshihiro Kamegai, Luis Carlos Abregu, Ismael El Massoudi – Do I even need to go there?
Guys not in the top 25 who might be possibilities:
Ruslan Provodnikov – has some name recognition via FNF, and might be an entertaining fight
Erik Morales – also GBP, says he wants a title in another weight class, Roach was rumored to want the fight a long time ago, but seriously this would be more lopsided than Mosley
Jo Jo Dan – should have beaten Aydin twice, but still no name recognition and not much of a chin either
Paulie Malignaggi – Already beat him
Rafal Jackiewicz – 10 loss Pole who makes everyone look bad
Lee Purdy or Denton Vassell – Domestic dust ups that should only be options if Khan wants a blowout homecoming fight
Shawn Porter – Probably has more exposure than most of the guys I’ve listed, might not be a horrible fight, but Porter is generally a speed fighter and Khan has more speed
Kevin Bizier – Another undefeated prospect who’s not very good, but has much less name recognition than Porter stateside
Assuming Khan is actually moving up to 147 as he says he is, there isn’t a better financial option available than Mosley, and there really aren’t that many better fights available either. And at 140, the only fights that might make any sense would be Bradley (not happening because of Top Rank/GBP feud) or Judah (unavailable because of Vernon Paris fight, although I suspect he’d pull out for the chance to fight Khan).
Bad Left Hook - The SB Nation boxing blog
"Baseball is played on the field, not on a calculator."
And the reason I'm discounting
the guys who already have fights scheduled is because of Ramadan. To stay on his normal three fight schedule, he needs to fight in April, early May at the latest (although as we already know, the first weekend of May isn’t available). If he decides to take it easy until June or July, then sure those other guys might become available, but I just doubt Khan will sit out for that long.
Bad Left Hook - The SB Nation boxing blog
"Baseball is played on the field, not on a calculator."
Senchenko and Malignaggi are about to meet for Senchenko’s belt. Don’t know if that fight is off the table now but last I heard those two were pretty close to making it official.
by CollegeDropIn on Jan 25, 2012 11:20 AM EST up reply actions
Yup
And I forgot about Morales fighting Garcia coming up too. Really, there just aren’t many options was my point.
Bad Left Hook - The SB Nation boxing blog
"Baseball is played on the field, not on a calculator."
The guy I’d most like to see get another big fight out of that lot is Zaveck. He was giving Berto one hell of a fight and I think the stoppage was bogus – the swelling and cut came from head clashes. Kinda disappointed for the guy that he hasn’t had a serious fight since.
"Occasionally, there is a boxing match that, in its demonstration of skill, courage, intelligence, hope, seems to redeem the sport - almost. Perhaps boxing has always been a sport in crisis, a sport of crisis."
by Oli Goldstein on Jan 29, 2012 3:23 PM EST up reply actions
Assuming Peterson doesn’t give him a rematch, he will still have WBA belt, so i reckon he will defend that in april (no idea who against though), and then move up to welterweight for a fight that hopefully will be against Brook, if not then ortiz/berto winner, if not them then maidana/alexander winner, and finally jones bailey winner, although i doubt he would get a crack at a title in his first fight in the division, and so that discounts anyone but brook and maidana/alexander
Assuming Peterson doesn’t give him a rematch, he will still have WBA belt, so i reckon he will defend that in april (no idea who against though)
Khan has no belts.
Bad Left Hook
"To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day..."
by Scott Christ on Jan 26, 2012 10:08 AM EST up reply actions
Nope. The belt is vacant and then the commission arbitrarily decides which bout should be for the title.
"The bell that tolls for all in boxing belongs to a cash register."
-Bob Verdi
by Waldo Rastel on Jan 26, 2012 5:56 PM EST up reply actions
That’s how this works. Having a vacant belt is great for the commission because they can get the largest possible sanctioning fees by making the biggest fight in a division for the belt.
"The bell that tolls for all in boxing belongs to a cash register."
-Bob Verdi
by Waldo Rastel on Jan 27, 2012 3:31 PM EST up reply actions
The belt would go vacant.
Bad Left Hook
"To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day..."
by Scott Christ on Jan 26, 2012 8:29 PM EST up reply actions
Three words: Zab Judah Rematch. Because if Khan isn’t taking this seriously, I’m not going to even take the question of what’s next seriously.
It was so memorable
That I forgot they fought already
Bad Left Hook - The SB Nation boxing blog
"Baseball is played on the field, not on a calculator."
Prescott
Keep busy until a better fight cometh.
by Shitali Klitschko on Jan 25, 2012 2:48 PM EST via mobile reply actions
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