Welterweight contender Amir Khan has only himself to blame for missing out on fights against Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao, according to cruiserweight BJ Flores.
The Briton has actively pursued the biggest names in boxing over recent years, but Flores spoke to Robert Brown of On The Ropes and put forth his belief that Khan’s hounding attitude only hurt his chances: I think the main thing is that Amir is a very good fighter but he’s gotta remember against Floyd and against Manny, he’s the B side, so it doesn’t always happen on his terms. When they’re ready to decide when it is, then he’s gotta sit back and play cool and not make it like he’s the one controlling everything because he’s not.
Manny fights who he wants to fight and Floyd fights who he wants to fight. Amir is on the B side trying to act like he gets to make all the decisions and that’s his prerogative if he wants to but I think he’s cost himself some fights by doing that, by jumping the gun a little early.
Khan is currently on a five-fight win streak and has been vocal in his attempts to land a bout opposite either of the aforementioned veterans, but those chances look all but done.
Flores went on to further highlight Khan’s inferiority next to those fighters and even suggested he’s not the best Britain has to offer as Kell Brook’s march continues: Sometimes you want to be the biggest fish in your own pond and you really don’t want any debate about that, you just want to be the big fish. I think Amir Khan is trying to not recognize the talent and the abilities that Kell Brook has coming up and he just doesn’t even want to give him a pay day to make that.
Khan doesn’t want Kell Brook to make his name off of him. Kell Brook is a very good fighter and it would be a very interesting fight, but Amir is going to do what he wants to do and he’s earned his stripes to where he can do that.
Time is thought to be extremely limited if there’s even the slightest hope remaining that Khan will be able to get in the ring with Pacquiao before the Filipino announces his retirement from the sport.
According to ESPN.com’s Dan Rafael, promoter Bob Arum announced Pacquiao’s farewell fight will be against either Khan, Terence Crawford or Timothy Bradley: Khan may only have so much appeal to a fighter like Pacquiao given that he’s already surrendered a few disappointing defeats in his career, most notably the back-to-back losses against Lamont Peterson and Danny Garcia in 2011 and 2012.
