Amir Khan set out to shine so brightly in New York that momentum would build and leave Floyd Mayweather with little choice but to fight him.
On that count he failed as he endured a tough time against a surprisingly aggressive Chris Algieri at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on Friday night.
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The fact that Khan deserved his unanimous decision wasn’t really up for debate, but what was also clear was just how much success Algieri, a 15-1 outsider, enjoyed with his right hand.
Indeed, if the New Yorker had any real venom in that shot then Khan’s dreams of topping the bill at the MGM Grand alongside the Money man could have been over for good.
As it transpired, he might have actually improved his chances of finally landing the big one.
He had to win on Friday, there’s no doubt about that, yet the vulnerability he showed along the way will not have gone unnoticed.
After last nights performance @ChrisAlgieri has a great future ahead of him, will beat many top Welterweights, Big strong and game #Respect
— Amir Khan (@AmirKingKhan) May 30, 2015
Khan, now 31-3, looked every bit the superstar in dismantling Devon Alexander last December, putting his punches together in rapid bursts and barely taking a lick in return. But at the weekend those trademark combinations were conspicuous by their absence and the 28-year-old, particularly in the first half of the fight, was just so easy to hit.
None of that is to say Mayweather would have been unduly concerned by Khan’s previous win over Alexander – the long-reigning pound-for-pound king looked to have lost little of his sharpness against Manny Pacquiao last month – but he is always fastidious when it comes to evaluating risk when it comes to future match-ups.
So the sight of a heavily bruised Khan doing his post-fight press conference in a pair of expensive sunglasses might just have pushed the Briton to the front of the queue for Mayweather’s September 12 outing – potentially his last.
Khan’s desperation for a shot at the main man has seen him tailor his career moves based on what Mayweather might do for the past two years.
At times he has tried to be too clever for his own good, passing on fights while he awaited the call. Ironically, his smartest ploy might have been an unwitting one.
Khan’s back-up plan for later in the year remains Kell Brook in a British superfight.
As he said pre-Algieri: “The Brook fight will always be there in the UK.”
That showdown is an easy sell to a British audience, while there would also be considerable interest from the American networks in a grudge match where welterweight gold is at stake.
Brook, unbeaten in 35 fights, crushed Frankie Gavin on Saturday night in London in predictably emphatic style. The Sheffield fighter has looked ominously good in his two defences of the IBF title he took from Shawn Porter, but you have to question the quality of the opposition.
Brook is desperate for Khan but, with or without him, he really needs to step up in class.
After this latest sixth round TKO he called out Pacquiao, Keith Thurman and, randomly, for the second fight in a row, Brandon Rios.
Rios himself was bemused when his Twitter notifications exploded on Saturday night and he admitted he had never seen Brook box.
Despite Bam Bam’s ambivalence, the switch-hitting Brit’s stature is growing.
“He wants the big names and it’s our job to bring them over,” said his promoter Eddie Hearn on Saturday.
And therein lies a problem. If Brook is determined to only campaign in Britain, those blockbuster clashes may just be a little harder to make in a largely American-dominated welterweight division.
All will become a lot clearer in the next few weeks and as usual it’s puppet master Mayweather pulling the strings.
He usually uses social media to announce his plans. Khan will be hoping and praying it’s his name he posts. Brook will most certainly hope it isn’t.
