Amir Khan fit and ready for welterweight debut against Luis Collazo

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2014/may/02/amir-khan-luis-collazo-welterweight-debut

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When they stripped to their Guccis to mount the scales here on Friday, 10 of the 20 combatants parading before Saturday night's show hit the limit at or a little below welterweight. And nine of them watched Floyd Mayweather, the sport's undisputed 10st 7lb champion, as if he were not so much a pugilistic fellow-traveller as their rich uncle. As Amir Khan observed: "When you're talking with Floyd Mayweather, he's the boss. You have to listen to him."

Fighters of ambition rely on the unbeaten WBC king, the highest-paid athlete in the world, to leverage them some gilt from his cloak, because of his financial clout with the casino and television cheque-signers. All week, these welters expressed their gratitude. With wildly varying degrees of hope, not one of them would pass on the chance to rip off his 37-year-old head one day.

Only a couple will get the chance, of course, chief among Khan, who looked cut and strong before his full welterweight debut, against the former world champion Luis Collazo. Nearby in the impressive lineup was Marcos Maidana, who lost to Khan four years ago but did such an impressive job in pricking Adrien Broner's balloon in his last fight he leapfrogged the Bolton boxer to challenge Mayweather.

Broner, too, is here, in what should be a tasty 10-rounder while it lasts, down at light-welterweight against Carlos Molina, whose last fight was a 10th-round stoppage loss in Khan's first appearance for Virgil Hunter, after his split with Freddie Roach. If Broner wins, as he should, he will also be in the queue for one of the three scheduled slots left on the Mayweather roster.

However, as much as Mayweather is driving the business – this is his third co-promotion with Showtime in a six-fight deal that culminates in September, 2015 – he is not Father Christmas. He has negotiated himself a locked-on $32m; his challenger Maidana, who holds the WBA belt, gets $1.5m, as does Khan. If that disparity appears out of kilter, it is because what Floyd wants Floyd gets; the pot is not bottomless. Mayweather's muse and adviser, Leonard Ellerbe, confirmed the champion is due to visit London in June "on boxing business", which might give Khan hope that he will eventually share a ring with him.

But not this September, Khan says, because he would not have enough time to recover after the fasting rigours of Ramadan, which finishes on 28 July. He will be a father in a few weeks, also, so, if he gets past Collazo – and at the end of the most extended preparation of his career – he will be keen for rest and time with his family. If he stays in contention for a Mayweather shot, next May is his best chance.

There are two other British fighters on the bill. The welterweight Ashley Theophane, now based in Las Vegas and part of the Mayweather team, has an eight-rounder against Angino Perez from Miami. The London Olympic bronze medallist Anthony Ogogo has six rounds at middleweight against Jonel Tapia, knocked out in one round in his last fight by Badou Jack (who subsequently went the same way in February).For Khan, defeat always seems to be the hammer-carrying ghost lurking near his unreliable chin but he maintains he has settled on his best weight and feels strong after a long training camp in the company of heavier sparring partners.

Having come within a signed contract of landing Mayweather gold, he has to settle for Collazo tin and is relying now on the faith of Golden Boy Promotions and Showtime, who still admire his fighting spirit. "Never in a dull fight," they chorused this week.

A little dullness against Collazo would do no harm, though. Khan needs to stay cool under fire. The challenge for him will be handling the strength and maturity of a fighter who has spent his entire career at welterweight, with a couple of visits to light-middleweight.

"I feel so much stronger," Khan said before matching Collazo at 147lbs in the weigh-in on Friday night. "I'm a similar size but I'm not going to kill myself making weight any more. I never made it seem like a problem because I never wanted to give my opponent an edge."

So, if the time for kidding himself and his opponents has passed, Collazo, who ran Ricky Hatton close on his welterweight debut eight years ago, provides a dose of honesty. This will not be an easy night for Khan, although he should prevail over the distance against an opponent who does not throw a lot of punches.

"I'm not going to get in a war with this guy," Khan says. "That would be silly. It's going to be clinical. I know if I get hit with a good shot and then try to show I'm not hurt by showing off a little bit, it's only going to be a downfall for me."

He would rather be trading with Mayweather, of course, and revealed how that shambolic scenario unfolded before Christmas, when he turned down a chance to challenge the IBF champion Devon Alexander on a promise of landing the biggest fight available in boxing.

"I remember just after the Mayweather fight [against Saúl Álvarez], I called my lawyer [at Golden Boy] and said, 'Look, call Mayweather's team and say I will fight him next. Do you think he'll take it?' He said, 'I can put the question to him but I don't think they will.'

"My lawyer called a couple of days later and said, 'They're interested in the fight but what that means is you'll have to pull out of the fight against Alexander. That way you have a little break and the Mayweather fight will be in May.'

"Golden Boy kind of agreed to it; Mayweather's team kind of agreed to it.

So they agreed behind the scenes. I didn't say anything [at the time]. At the end of December they got into [talks] and I thought maybe January they're going to do it. Then Maidana got the good win against Broner, and the tables turned. They said now Maidana's in the mix but I still thought I had it. Contracts had gone back and forth. It was Golden Boy who had said I should [withdraw from the Alexander fight].

"I thought it was in the bag and I'm just going to focus on Mayweather. I'm not going to tell anyone. I'm just going to train. Plus it will give me a break to work on a few things.

"Even though people were talking about Maidana, I thought it was in the bag anyway. But people will always remember you from your last fight. Like people are talking now about Shawn Porter [who took the title from Alexander], because he boxed so well against [Paulie] Malignaggi. That's how boxing fans are.

"But I signed my contract and sent it back to Golden Boy's [legal] team and Mayweather's team. And I've not got anything back."

As for Mayweather's social media poll that supposed went for Maidana over Khan as the next opponent, Khan remains sceptical. "It was a bit of a mess, honestly. I didn't believe it. I thought it was nonsense. I thought Mayweather was just doing it to mess around, maybe to get the crowd involved in something.

"It's hard to say he didn't want to fight me, but he knows how much a big following I have in Asia. He wanted to capitalise on that. I've got a lot of fans there who probably don't know who Mayweather so well. But they're from Pakistan and Muslim. He was maybe opening up that new market.

"By the end of February, I realised I wasn't going to get the fight. I'm getting no response from Golden Boy, getting no response from Mayweather's team, so the fight's gone. I better start looking at a few others. Golden Boy gave me a short-list of three fighters. I wanted [Robert] Guerrero first, but then I heard he was having legal problems with Golden Boy. Then Collazo got a good win against [Victor] Ortiz.

"But that's the way it is when you're negotiating with the pound-for-pound champion in boxing. Anyone else we negotiate with, we tell them what we get."

As for the prospect of not only getting that fight but having it in London, Khan was similarly realistic. "I can't see Mayweather ever coming out of America."