Earlier this month, Floyd Mayweather Sr. sat ringside to watch WBA jr. welterweight champion Amir Khan successfully defend his title against hard-hitting Marcos Maidana. While attending the weigh-in one day prior to the bout, the always entertaining elder Mayweather made an interesting comment. "I got my own reasons, but I like Amir Khan. I don't like Amir Khan, but I like Amir Khan," he said with a big grin when asked who he thought would win the fight. Rumors quickly began to surface that the world-class trainer was in attendance to study Amir Khan up close and personal to scout him as a potential future opponent for his son, undefeated pound-for-pound champion Floyd Mayweather. With the fight now several weeks removed, Mayweather Sr. did not hold back as he shared his thoughts on Khan's skills.
"I thought Amir Khan looked like dog shit. Everybody talk about how Freddie Roach made him a better fighter. Freddie Roach made him a worse fighter. He caught that guy with a nice shot early, but after that, all he did was fucking run. He was running for his life in there and he's lucky it wasn't a 15 round fight like the old days or you know what would have happened to him? He would have been stopped," he explained, unimpressed with anything that he saw from the young jr. welterweight champion. "Khan looked like shit man. Man, let me tell you something man, Freddie Roach ain't did nothing for Khan. He looked like shit. He would stand still and throw a few punches and then start fucking running again."
Those are harsh words from one of the toughest critics in the sport, but given his opinion, I have to wonder if Khan is one step closer to becoming Mayweather's next opponent, assuming of course that he does plan on fighting some time in 2011. After all, it was Khan himself who suggested the potential match-up. "I would love to fight Mayweather," Khan would tell the Daily Mail back in September. In fact, he's been extremely vocal in expressing his opinion that he would be the one to hand Floyd Mayweather his first defeat. "I believe I can end his unbeaten record," he stated with confidence when first asked about the possibility of the fight. "If you want to be the best fighter in the world you have to fight the best in the world and I think it's a fight people want to see," Khan reiterated in an interview with Seen magazine.
Seeing as how the other pound-for-pound champion, Manny Pacquiao, now has a May 7 appointment with three-division world champion "Sugar" Shane Mosley, in many ways, Khan just may be the perfect choice for Mayweather if he does decide to return to the ring in the first half of 2011. Judging from Mayweather Sr.'s critique of his performance, Khan would make for the perfect low risk, high reward option for an undefeated fighter looking to keep his unblemished record intact. Despite Mayweather Sr.'s opinion that Khan "looked like shit," I have a feeling that he also looks like several million to the man nicknamed "Money".