By Sudipto Ganguly
MUMBAI, This summer 7 (Reuters) - Amir Khan spent years seeking to nail down a massive with Floyd Mayweather Junior the Briton is more than pleased to see the particular undefeated multi-division world champ come out of retirement to manage a man who has never had a single professional bout.
Mayweather hung up his gloves inside 2015 with a 49-0 record but the 40-year-old American will return to the ring for any rewarding 12-round boxing match towards Irish mixed martial arts champion Conor McGregor inside Las Vegas next month.
Reviews of a fight in between former world light-welterweight champion Khan and Mayweather often surfaced in the media but the bout never ever materialised as neither camping came close to the particular negotiating table.
Despite a lot of criticism within boxing, the 30-year-old Khan feels the crossover fight among Mayweather and McGregor will probably be positive for the sports activity, which he feels has lost ground to typically the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) MMA promotion.
"It's a business fight, one, " Khan told Reuters. "Two, what's going to take place now could be it's between boxing and MMA.
"At typically the moment, MMA and ULTIMATE FIGHTER CHAMPIONSHIPS is doing a lot of excellent numbers on TV, on pay-per-view. Boxing is doing OK but it took little bit of the dip. We are not necessarily getting the favorable pay-per-view amounts we used to.
"For now to combine both sporting activities together is going to be able to be perfect for the sports activity of boxing (more) compared to MMA.
"We hit a wall and we did not really do anything. Boxing never moved forward around the world, whereas TRAINING FOR MMA kept moving forward and got bigger and bigger and bigger. Boxing kind of stalled in my thoughts and opinions and that we needed something such as this. "
Undefeated middleweight world champion Gennady Golovkin has dismissed the round as a 'circus show' but Khan disagrees with the Kazakh fighter.
"You need to respect everybody that moves in to the ring, you have to respect everybody who puts the gloves on. You have to fight before millions... not easy, " the Briton mentioned in an interview.
Khan, who won a sterling silver medal as a lightweight at the 2004 Athens Olympics, is also hopeful that Mayweather's return may ultimately result in a long-awaited showdown between the two males.
"When he beats McGregor, which I think this individual will, that fight can easily still be there. It really can happen, " Khan (31-4) said. "There's still some big fights out there for me, Mayweather, (Manny) Pacquiao... "
'PACQUIAO DIDN'T LOSE'
Khan was slated to battle eight-division world champion Pacquiao in the United Arabic Emirates earlier this 12 months but that deal fell through over money difficulties.
The Filipino instead got on little-regarded Australian Rob Horn in Brisbane final weekend and suffered a stunning controversial points loss to the former schoolteacher.
"I don't think Pacquiao lost, he lost about paper, " Khan mentioned. "This is boxing, it can happened to me, it's happened to many fighters. A person can't sulk about this. Just go back, possess the rematch and conquer him.
"We all know Manny is the better mma fighter. I just think he must have gone in there and knocked him out there. Because sometimes fighting somebody in their own yard is quite difficult to be able to win with the benefits he has. inches
Khan also did not guideline out securing a fight against Pacquiao in the future.
"Maybe the particular Pacquiao fight will occur later, it's about timing, " he said. "Maybe Manny Pacquiao didn't sense confident to take the fight with me this specific time, maybe he will certainly take it next period. inches
Khan has not fought since May 2016, when he moved upwards two divisions to consider middleweight Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez, a sixth-round knockout loss of which he admits was the mistake he would not be repeating sooner.
"It's now all about making the right choices for myself, making sure I don't take fights that I don't need... like going upwards two weight categories, inches he said.
"It has been a mistake. But in case you have to do something which is not ordinary, you must go do something ridiculous. That will have taken me personally to a different degree. So you have to take big risks. Yet it can be damaging for the career. "
Khan is at Mumbai to advertise the franchise-based Super Boxing League which runs through July 7 to August. 12, will be televised reside by Sony ESPN in addition to is backed by the entire world Boxing Council (WBC). (Editing by John O'Brien)
MUMBAI, This summer 7 (Reuters) - Amir Khan spent years seeking to nail down a massive with Floyd Mayweather Junior the Briton is more than pleased to see the particular undefeated multi-division world champ come out of retirement to manage a man who has never had a single professional bout.Mayweather hung up his gloves inside 2015 with a 49-0 record but the 40-year-old American will return to the ring for any rewarding 12-round boxing match towards Irish mixed martial arts champion Conor McGregor inside Las Vegas next month.
Reviews of a fight in between former world light-welterweight champion Khan and Mayweather often surfaced in the media but the bout never ever materialised as neither camping came close to the particular negotiating table.
Despite a lot of criticism within boxing, the 30-year-old Khan feels the crossover fight among Mayweather and McGregor will probably be positive for the sports activity, which he feels has lost ground to typically the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) MMA promotion.
"It's a business fight, one, " Khan told Reuters. "Two, what's going to take place now could be it's between boxing and MMA.
"At typically the moment, MMA and ULTIMATE FIGHTER CHAMPIONSHIPS is doing a lot of excellent numbers on TV, on pay-per-view. Boxing is doing OK but it took little bit of the dip. We are not necessarily getting the favorable pay-per-view amounts we used to.
"For now to combine both sporting activities together is going to be able to be perfect for the sports activity of boxing (more) compared to MMA.
"We hit a wall and we did not really do anything. Boxing never moved forward around the world, whereas TRAINING FOR MMA kept moving forward and got bigger and bigger and bigger. Boxing kind of stalled in my thoughts and opinions and that we needed something such as this. "
Undefeated middleweight world champion Gennady Golovkin has dismissed the round as a 'circus show' but Khan disagrees with the Kazakh fighter.
"You need to respect everybody that moves in to the ring, you have to respect everybody who puts the gloves on. You have to fight before millions... not easy, " the Briton mentioned in an interview.
Khan, who won a sterling silver medal as a lightweight at the 2004 Athens Olympics, is also hopeful that Mayweather's return may ultimately result in a long-awaited showdown between the two males.
"When he beats McGregor, which I think this individual will, that fight can easily still be there. It really can happen, " Khan (31-4) said. "There's still some big fights out there for me, Mayweather, (Manny) Pacquiao... "
'PACQUIAO DIDN'T LOSE'
Khan was slated to battle eight-division world champion Pacquiao in the United Arabic Emirates earlier this 12 months but that deal fell through over money difficulties.
The Filipino instead got on little-regarded Australian Rob Horn in Brisbane final weekend and suffered a stunning controversial points loss to the former schoolteacher.
"I don't think Pacquiao lost, he lost about paper, " Khan mentioned. "This is boxing, it can happened to me, it's happened to many fighters. A person can't sulk about this. Just go back, possess the rematch and conquer him.
"We all know Manny is the better mma fighter. I just think he must have gone in there and knocked him out there. Because sometimes fighting somebody in their own yard is quite difficult to be able to win with the benefits he has. inches
Khan also did not guideline out securing a fight against Pacquiao in the future.
"Maybe the particular Pacquiao fight will occur later, it's about timing, " he said. "Maybe Manny Pacquiao didn't sense confident to take the fight with me this specific time, maybe he will certainly take it next period. inches
Khan has not fought since May 2016, when he moved upwards two divisions to consider middleweight Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez, a sixth-round knockout loss of which he admits was the mistake he would not be repeating sooner.
"It's now all about making the right choices for myself, making sure I don't take fights that I don't need... like going upwards two weight categories, inches he said.
"It has been a mistake. But in case you have to do something which is not ordinary, you must go do something ridiculous. That will have taken me personally to a different degree. So you have to take big risks. Yet it can be damaging for the career. "
Khan is at Mumbai to advertise the franchise-based Super Boxing League which runs through July 7 to August. 12, will be televised reside by Sony ESPN in addition to is backed by the entire world Boxing Council (WBC). (Editing by John O'Brien)