Last night at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, Amir Khan made his case to be Floyd Mayweather‘s next opponent with a unanimous decision over former Welterweight World titleholder Chris Algieri. Though Khan won on the cards by scores of (115-113, 117-111, 117-111), it is unclear whether this was the type of performance that will assure him the Mayweather fight.
Frankly, for a (-1700) favorite, Khan lost several rounds to an Algieri that looked like a totally different fighter than he looked like against Manny Pacquiao. Algieri was never down, so there will be questions about Khan’s power. Khan was fast as advertised, and he outworked Algieri over the course of the fight, but Algieri flashed more offense and managed to land power shots throughout the fight. The bad news for Khan is that the overall impression from the fight is that neither man hits very hard.
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The “styles make fights” adage really takes some of the appeal out of Khan-Mayweather fight when you consider you are practically assured of a fight where no one gets dropped. Kudos to Algieri, who caught some of the magic he unleashed on Ruslan Provodnikov to become a world champion. Now he needs a win, but he kept his name in the mix with a solid performance,. He ran a risk of getting clobbered for a second time in a row against a top flight name, and it didn’t happen.
On the undercard, Javier Fortuna won an exciting, 12-round unanimous decision over Bryan Vasquez to win the vacant WBA World Super Featherweight title. The match closed with Fortuna the ever so slight favorite (-130) over Vasquez, who was returning at (+100). Fortuna moves to 28-0-1 , while Vasquez drops to 34-2. Both men benefitted from the departure of long-time champion Takashi Uchiyama for a higher weight class, and Fortuna may be heading for a showdown with Takashi Miura, another Japanese stand-out in the weight class.
If Khan’s fight with Mayweatrher does not materialize, he will likely be in the running for an all-British showdown with welterweight titlist and fellow countryman Kell Brook, who fights tonight in England. Should Brook get by the challenge of Frankie Gavin at the O2 Arena, you can expect a war of words between Brook and Khan in the press.
