Floyd Mayweather savagely ended any hope Amir Khan had of fighting him when the pair had signed a contract agreement.
Mayweather, at the time, with only four windows of opportunity remaining on his Showtime deal, opened a poll for his fans covered by WBN at the time.
It was a straight pick between Khan and Marcos Maidana for a 2013 Pay Per View battle.
Floyd Mayweather Poll
Khan won the poll and stamped a lucrative check with Mayweather for a Cinco de Mayo showdown in Las Vegas. But as the Bolton man prepared to host his training camp, Mayweather dropped a bombshell.
“When we were supposed to fight, I remembered that I signed all the contracts and everything was negotiated,” Khan explained to The Overlap.
“Everything was signed, and why didn’t it happen? Because I announced it first before him. Can you believe it?
“I wanted to be the man to announce the fight. But since he couldn’t do it, he said, ‘I’m not going to fight you.’”
Mayweather opted for the man who came in second in the voting: Maidana. The pair would eventually go on to have two fights that would net the Argentine around $10 million.
Maidana retired after collecting those paydays at the tender age of 31. Khan was still wrestling as of earlier this year.
“He went and fought someone whom I had already beaten Marcos Maidana. It was quite embarrassing,” Khan said. I thought, ‘wow,’ but that’s Mayweather.
“He believes in his own ego and himself so much that he has to make all the decisions. Nobody can announce anything before him.
“At the end of the day, give it to him because he has proven himself with what he has done in the sport of boxing.”
Amir Khan wins
On what would happen if the couple went ahead with the fight, Khan added:
“You know what? I’d beat him. If I was at my best, I’d have a lot of confidence. I’m going to get a lot of hate for that.
“Sorry guys, but you have to believe in yourself, and that’s something I’ve always done throughout my career.
“I think stylistically, when Mayweather was much younger; He had a lot of speed and movement. But I feel like my speed would have surpassed his speed, my movement would have surpassed his movement.
“He wasn’t really the biggest puncher in the game, so it would have been like a game of chess, but he would have gotten through it.”
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