THE day after Amir Khan defeated Devon Alexander in Las Vegas, speculation swirled that Floyd Mayweather had gone into Khan’s after-fight party in Las Vegas.
Khan was in a club in the MGM and while he and Mayweather did not meet, he heard that the pound-for-pound star was in the same venue at the same time, with an entourage of around 30 members.
“We were upstairs, Floyd might have been downstairs, I don’t know,” Khan said. “I heard he’d come in but he must have run off when he knew we were there. Someone said they saw him walk in, then someone said they saw him run to the fire exit, so he must have known I was in there!”
Khan was joking, of course, but he did reaffirm his stance that he wants to fight the American.
“I hope it does happen,” he said. “He wanted me to prove myself. I think I’ve done that now. I think it has to happen now.”
Khan’s contracts with Golden Boy and Showtime have both now expired, so the options are wide open after his commanding win over Alexander.
He watched a rerun of his victory the day after.
“I just saw the fight this morning, I was in bed,” he said. “I knew it was going to be tough because when I was watching Alexander on video he has that style that is awkward and he comes to fight. “He’s not the biggest puncher but he’s a game fighter, he throws a lot of punches, keeps busy and I knew he was going to be tough like that so I knew I had to stick to my game plan because there’s always that one punch that can take you off your game plan and hurt you. So I had to stick to my game plan, always move to my left because we had to get away from his backhand which is his harder punch. He sometimes throws a looping uppercut which he didn’t really throw in the fight but maybe that was because we kept the distance just right. I was happy with the performance.”
Khan said now his focus was on big fights (he’d taken a call from Manny Pacquiao’s team the week before) though admitted he was not flawless, saying he made mistakes and overcommitted at times.
He was told that promoter Eddie Hearn tentatively had Wembley Stadium booked for June 13, perhaps for a Kell Brook fight, though Khan said he knew nothing of it.
“June 13?” he asked. “They’ve not spoken to me about it. We don’t know what’s happening in my career so you can’t go booking places like that, I think that’s a little bit disrespectful. I don’t know nothing about that and he’s already booking venues? That’s how desperate he is. That’s like me saying to Floyd, ‘Listen, I’ve booked Wembley Stadium, you have to come and fight me now.’ If he [Hearn] has booked it, let him fight there! I can’t believe Kell is rushing into this fight with me because he’s coming off a big, major injury.
“It’s huge in the UK. It’s not a fight I’m saying no to. I’d love that fight. Stylistically if we fought the way we did [against Alexander] I know we’d beat and school Kell Brook. Everything was so composed and my style was just perfect. And speed, now I’m not lunging in with my chin in the air, and I’m not making as many mistakes. It’s a great style for me and a great fight for me.”
