Bolton’s Amir Khan will not face pound-for-pound king Floyd Mayweather, despite coming out victorious in an online poll ran by the American superstar.
After much speculation, Mayweather made the announcement earlier today through social media channels, stating he will instead fight MBA champion Marcos Maidana on May 3.
Earlier this month Kahn, 27, beat Maidana in the fan poll, which was set up by Mayweather to decide who his next opponent would be.
But after two weeks of silence from Mayweather’s camp, it became clear to Khan that he would not get the shot.
Mayweather’s previous fight, a win over Saul Alvarez last September, currently stands as the highest-grossing pay-per-view event in television history, making more than $150m (£90m).
Any future fights involving the American, who turned 37 yesterday, would prove incredibly lucrative.
Speaking on his Twitter account prior to the official announcement, Khan said: “No response from Mayweather or his team. Fights not happening. I should have taken the title fight last December against (Devon) Alexander.
He added: “Very disrespected by his team. Wasted my time.”
In another tweet, Khan accused the unbeaten American of avoiding the fight through fear.
“Can I apologise to the thousands of people who are let down. You, me and everyone wanted the Mayweather fight. He is running scared,” Khan tweeted.
Khan, who defeated Maidana on points when the pair met in 2010, did wish the Argentine luck.
Maidana entered the frame to face Mayweather after he recently beat the previously undefeated three-time World Champion Adrien Broner.
There had been much speculation over the last few months whether Khan would get the fight against Mayweather, after trying to rebuild his career following two successive defeats to Lamont Peterson in 2011 and Danny Garcia in 2012.
Since then, wins against Carlos Molina and Julio Diaz had put his career back on track, though many voices still claimed he hadn’t done enough to earn a shot at the unbeaten 37-year-old.
In 2013, Khan was deep in talks to face the WBC and IBF Light Welterweight champion Devon Alexander for a world title fight in December.
Khan pulled out late into negotiations, thinking he was next in line to face Mayweather.
It looked as though Khan would finally secure his dream-fight after winning the fan-poll, but the announcement has killed off any chance of the fight happening – at least for now.
It seems not everybody is sympathetic to Khan’s woes however. Fans took to Twitter to blast Khan over the whole affair.
@larryx2010 tweeted Khan saying: “you dont deserve shit,you havent done jack shit to earn a floyd fight,in your last 3 fights you were floored 5 times.”
He also said: “how do you barely beat Diaz,get floored,duck alexander and think you earned a Floyd fight?”
@newtonheathyrc said: “listen forget about style khan has 0% chance of beaten him end of all Amir wants is the payday ,don’t be a mug.”
One also doesn’t believe that Khan is worthy of a shot at the pound-for-pound king. @PBT4life said “Khan is a joke lol if u really believe he deserves a fight with Mayweather then ur on crack!”
Not everyone is so critical of the Bolton fighter however. Boxing promoter Bob Arum, who promotes Mayweather’s bitter rival, Manny Pacquiao, believes the way Khan has been treated is a ‘disgrace’.
“What he (Mayweather) has done to Amir Khan is absolutely disgraceful whether he ends up fighting him, or he doesn’t,” Arum told the Telegraph Sport prior to the decision being made.
“Amir Khan has put himself in a position where he can be humiliated. He’s like a laughing stock. Terrible. Absolutely terrible. He’s not fighting back and telling these guys to get lost.
“They have twisted the kid in the wind. Mayweather should be ashamed of himself. He’s not going to sign the contract, I think he will fight Maidana.”
Image courtesy of visitmanchester, via Flickr, with thanks.
