Amir Khan is hoping that a victory on Friday over Chris Algieri will help set up a dream fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. this fall, but Algieri might not be a name big enough to put Khan over the hump. When he was originally bypassed by Mayweather in 2014 in favor of Marcos Maidana, Maidana had just upset Adrien Broner.
According to Khan, he wanted to follow that blueprint but couldn't get a fight made.
"There were a few names I wanted to fight," Khan said. "Broner was another name, which I got no response back. Another one, Miguel Cotto, would have been a great fight for me. It's really hard to get a fight that you want. So, I got kind of desperate as well and had to really pick someone."
As recently as May 2 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, where Mayweather fought Pacquiao in "The Fight of the Century," Khan ran into Broner backstage and said he was willing to back out of his fight with Algieri in order to set up a fight vs. Broner.
In the past Khan has been limited in terms of when he could fight Mayweather, because of the Muslim holiday Ramadan. This year, Ramadan comes early so Khan doesn't foresee any issues with facing Mayweather in his preferred September slot.
"Well I think it can happen definitely and it can happen in September due to Ramadan ending a bit earlier this year. So I think that can give me enough time to get fit and be ready to accept the fight," Khan said, before making assurances he was focused fully on Algieri.
"But like I said I have to look good in this next fight against Algieri first. Algieri has a style that can make most fighters look really bad but I think I have to go in there and make sure I put on a good performance and look really good. Then I can sit down with my team and go from there."
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