Manny Pacquiao Thinks Amir Khan Should Face Floyd Mayweather in 2011

The BBC has a very interesting story on its site right now about Amir Khan and Floyd Mayweather Jr. Khan said he thinks he will be ready for Mayweather in a years time and Manny Pacquiao agrees.

"Manny thinks it will be a good fight because he's trained with me, sparred with me, he really thinks I'm good enough to fight Mayweather now.

"But I think in the next 12 months, when I get even better and with more experience, I think I'll be in better condition to fight him then.”

That is what Khan had to say about the fight and to be honest this would be a very challenging matchup for the undefeated Mayweather.

Mayweather hasn’t faced an opponent in his prime in a long time and may have never faced a fighter that has the skills that Khan posses. He is fast, big, and in his prime age.

Mayweather is turning 34 in February and although he his highly skilled his skills aren’t going to be with him forever. He also has a long history of injuries and hasn’t been very active in a few years.

Khan on the other hand is in the beginning of his career, has been very active, and has no history of injuries in his short career.

As far as hand speed goes Mayweather has probably never faced anyone with hands this fast. The real question here is does this fight make sense for Mayweather?

Without a doubt the answer is yes. Everyone wants the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight but at this point I have serious doubts if that fight will ever be made.

That leaves no one at welterweight and a few guys at junior welterweight. Those guys are Devon Alexander, Timothy Bradley, and Khan. Alexander is fighting Bradley so one of them will eliminate the other.

Those are three good fighters but Khan is the most popular and if he survives his Dec. 11 fight with Marcos Madiana he will have the most U.S. TV hype of all of them.

You add in the fact that the most famous trainer in the world is in his corner and it adds a lot of intrigue. People know of Freddie Roach and knows that he is a master planner and may have a plan to beat Mayweather.

There are a lot of people in the public that still hate on Khan and point to his one round destruction by Bredis Prescott. Well that is one bad round as a pro and outside of that he has been untouchable.

He has a bad chin and that will never change but Mayweather wont test it and Roach has done a great job of teaching him how to not get hit cleanly on the chin.

Khan is a Golden Boy fighter and that would make this much easier because Bob Arum wouldn’t be involved in negations. Not to blame Arum for not making the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight but this simplifies things.

If this fight is made next year Mayweather would probably be heavily favored and rightfully so. I would pick him to win but it would be a very intriguing matchup and it is a win he will have to work for.

All the pieces seem to be in place to make this fight happen. The only way that this fight wont happen is if Mayweather doesn’t want to make it happen.

If Mayweather doesn’t want the fight he is going to have to turn to something less appealing that the public wont be interested in, like a Mosley rematch.

This was originally written for and published on www.kissingthecanvas.com.