Miguel Cotto apparently needs to start kicking his search for an opponent into overdrive now that all signs are pointing to Floyd Mayweather Jr. fighting Manny Pacquiao on May 2. British welterweight Amir Khan thinks he knows just the guy.
"I was speaking to Pacquiao's team and Mayweather's team but now they're fighting each other that kills two names off for me,' Khan said. "We've put a call into Timothy Bradley, Juan Manuel Marquez and Miguel Cotto. I think they're big fights for me.
"'It's a waiting game at the moment. I'll fight whoever they put in front of me, I've never said no to an opponent."
Many boxing fans would like to see Cotto get in the ring vs. Gennady "GGG" Golovkin, the WBA middleweight champion fighting Saturday in Monte Carlo vs. Martin Murray. Unfortunately for Golovkin, who has called out Cotto on many occasions, Cotto's camp doesn't appear interested at all in fighting him.
Khan has much more name value at this time than Golovkin does, and Cotto's more likely to look at him, Timothy Bradley, or Brandon Rios for his next fight even though none of them are middleweights.
Khan only has two fights at welterweight, and has been knocked out twice when he fought at 140 pounds, but still thinks he could handle moving up to a catch weight to face Cotto.
"I walk around at 160lb and he [Cotto] has the title at 160 pounds but we know he's not a big 160-pound fighter. He got stopped by Pacquiao and Mayweather beat him convincingly so a good boxer would beat him. If we can get him down to 155 pounds I'd take it in a heartbeat," Khan said.
Khan ruled out a fight vs. Kell Brook for the time being, citing his upcoming title defense and their time frames not aligning.
"With him fighting in March and me fighting early May, the turnaround time for him will be impossible but maybe in the future. I never want to leave out any names, I want to fight the top names. The Kell Brook fight will always be there because the fans want to see it, it's a good domestic fight. I've a few years left in my career now and I want to maximize my name in America.
"Kell just won his world title so it would be good to let him defend it a few times then take it off him next year."
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