Amir Khan is generally always good for a lively interview, no matter how much you might disagree with him, and he’s at it again, talking about his long-discussed fights that never happened against both Floyd Mayweather and Kell Brook.
Khan (34-5, 21 KO) said he met Mayweather at a WBC convention in Miami back in 2018, and that Mayweather was friendly and respectful in person.
“I think Mayweather — he’s a funny character because he’s one of them type of guys where he wants to pick who he wants to fight, he wants to be the boss, he wants to be the main headline,” Khan said. “But when we met him face-to-face he was like a totally different guy. He was very humble, very respectful. He said hi to me and said hi to my wife and to my team and took pictures with us. That was it, really.
“We never spoke about why the fight didn’t happen between us. But he did go, ‘I need a dancing partner, Amir, let’s make it happen!’ So that was the last time me and Mayweather spoke. I was like, ‘Yo, Floyd, I’m waiting on you! Let’s make it happen!’”
Asked how he would have tried to combat the undefeated superstar, Khan said he would have given his best effort at beating Floyd at his own game.
“I would have had a game plan where I would have been hitting and moving. It would have been a game of chess,” he said. “Mayweather’s the best at that, to beat him at his own game would be how you beat Mayweather. Fighters try to put the pressure on him, try to push him back, so that way they make themselves open and end up getting caught themselves. I would’ve been smart, I would’ve boxed him at his own game, boxed him more than gone in there fighting him.
“See, the Maidanas, the other fighters like Ricky Hatton, put the pressure on him, but that’s what Mayweather wants. Mayweather wants that! A good boxer is the one that would beat Mayweather, speed as well.
“Look, I don’t know if I would have beaten him, but I would have given it a hell of a try. End of the day, Mayweather is one of the best fighters out there, and I respect that. But as a fighter, I’m very confident, as well, and I always believe in myself.”
Khan also spoke about the much-discussed non-fight with domestic rival Kell Brook. The two sides have gone back-and-forth in the media for years, with Brook recently saying he’s finally given up on the bout.
Khan, 33, says that negotiations were going well for a fight at 147 pounds, but that Brook moved up in weight and put a halt to the negotiations. Khan said he had no desire to fight again over the welterweight limit.
“I made that mistake against Canelo. I’m not big enough, I don’t have the physical strength,” he admitted. “I said, ‘I can’t go up in weight, if we’re going to fight I want to fight at 147.’ Everything was going smooth! It was him who walked away from the fight! He moved up to 154 and that’s the reason why negotiations stopped.”
It’s worth noting that Brook purposely weighed in at 150 for his Dec. 2018 fight with Michael Zerafa, which was thought to be a final bout for him before facing Khan in 2019. Instead, Khan sought a bigger payday and a bigger U.S. opportunity against Terence Crawford.
It’s also worth noting that in this interview, Khan claims both he and Brook had won world titles at 147. Brook did, but Khan did not. Khan has won one world title in his career, at 140 pounds.
Khan last fought in July 2019, going to Saudi Arabia to dominate former featherweight titlist Billy Dib, three months after an infamously poor effort against Terence Crawford.