Floyd Mayweather Jr. may have thoroughly outclassed Marcos Maidana in a rematch of their May bout in which Maidana gave the pound-for-pound king fits with his aggression, but the performance didn't make Amir Khan think any differently of his potential chances against Mayweather.
"In a boxing match, I've never been outboxed. Floyd Mayweather, I don't think he has the power to hurt me. I think when it comes to skills, I will outshine him. And when it comes to boxing, a game of chess - I know that I will beat anyone," Khan told Boxingscene.com.
Khan has been agitating for a bout with Mayweather since last fall, and appeared to be the frontrunner before Maidana surged past him following a dominant win over Adrien Broner, who is often called Mayweather's "little brother."
Maidana is a more typical Mayweather opponent than Khan is-Maidana is the harder puncher, but showed over the course of two fights he lacked the hand speed and ring generalship to consistently land clean punches. Khan is known for his hand speed, and is regarded as a very skilled boxer.
"Maidana was giving him a lot of problems and I would give him ten times as many problems," Khan said. "The guy he fought who was nearly as quick as me was Zab Judah and he gave him a hell of a lot of problems. I am a lot quicker than Zab and more explosive than any of those guys ."
The issue with Khan's candidacy is two-fold. First, he lacks signature victories on his resume, having lost in his biggest fights against the likes of Danny Garcia and Lamont Peterson. Although his loss to Peterson was controversial because of two point deductions for shoving, when faced with top competition Khan's been shaky.
Second, he has a reputation of being a glass-jawed fighter. Two of his three losses came by way of knockout, and Danny Garcia, one of the men who've administered those knockouts, is another name in the mix for a Mayweather fight.
Khan is 3-0 since the loss to Peterson, but the biggest win of the three came vs. journeyman Luis Collazo. He was expected to take on fellow U.K. fighter Kell Brook in the near future for the IBF title, but a stab wound has shelved Brook indefinitely. Josesito Lopez has been rumored as an opponent as well, while Keith "One-Time" Thurman has called him out.
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