Amir Khan, left, of Britain battles with Devon Alexander of St. Louis, Mo. during a welterweight fight at the MGM Grand Garden Arena Saturday, Dec. 13, 2014.
Saturday, Dec. 13, 2014 | 11:50 p.m.
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Punches landed. Statement made. Mayweather summoned.
Amir Khan put on a boxing clinic at the expense of Devon Alexander Saturday at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, garnering the degree of landslide he felt necessary to warrant a shot at Floyd Mayweather Jr. Before ring announcer Jimmy Lennon Jr. even read the scores, Khan shifted his focus to the future.
He shifted his sights to Mayweather.
“You can see the determination in Khan’s eyes that he wants Mayweather,” Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya said. “You can see it in his work ethic. You can see it in this fight.”
The fight showed Khan putting on a Mayweather impersonation. Alexander couldn’t hit him. Khan scored whenever he cared to engage.
The 28-year-old welterweight from Bolton, United Kingdom, built a 243-96 edge in punches as the judges stretched to find any frames worth giving to Alexander. Khan’s unanimous-decision victory featured one scorecard, 120-108, giving him every round while the other two, 119-110 and 118-111, were also near-sweeps.
De La Hoya, his promoter, raved over “a perfect fight.” Khan’s trainer Virgil Hunter graded his pupil’s performance a 9.9 out of 10.
“I just beat a three-time world champion and proved to be a force at 147 pounds,” Khan said. “I didn’t call Floyd Mayweather out with total confidence before but now I think I proved to everyone that I deserve that fight.”
Convinced he would get the call to fight Mayweather, Khan dropped out of the originally scheduled bout against Alexander at the end of last year. The cancellation delayed his career when Mayweather passed, but ultimately, Khan believed it was for the best.
Losses to Danny Garcia and Lamont Peterson are now distant memories, as Khan showed vastly improved defense and speed in both his win against Alexander and a previous victory over Luis Collazo in May. In those last two fights, Khan has won 69 out of a possible 76 rounds on the combined six judges’ scorecards.
“It’s time now for Mayweather to fight somebody with speed, explosiveness, movement,” Khan said. “I could give him a lot of problems. You haven’t seen Floyd in the ring with someone explosive and quick since Zab Judah (eight years ago), who gave him a lot of problems.”
Mayweather’s interests appear elsewhere. The undefeated pound-for-pound great is set on his usual date of the first Saturday in May, but he challenged Manny Pacquiao last night to step up as his opponent.
In that case, Khan has plenty other potential matchups to keep him busy. The welterweight division is currently the deepest in boxing, as seen in Las Vegas alone Saturday night.
In direct support for Khan vs. Alexander, Keith Thurman outpointed Leonard Bundu by winning every round on every judge’s scorecard to stay undefeated. Less than a mile away at the Cosmopolitan, Timothy Bradley and Diego Chaves fought to a controversial split draw. Every media score had Bradley as the victor, but the judges rendered a split draw (116-112, 115-113, 114-114).
A more likely next opponent for Khan is Kel Brook, a fellow England native who currently holds the IBF title. Khan has also always wanted to avenge his loss to Garcia.
But Khan dropped his head and lowered his voice an octave whenever someone’s name other than Mayweather emerged Saturday. De La Hoya was the only person near Khan as much as pondering other options.
“If Mayweather and Pacquiao fight in May, that’s understandable and we have to explore option B for Amir because that’s the fight the whole world wants to see,” De La Hoya said. “Now is it going to happen? I don’t think so. That’s my personal opinion. So what’s plan B for Mayweather? Not the fight that he wants, but the fight that he needs? It’s Amir Khan.”
De La Hoya accused of Mayweather of ducking Khan. The promoter said the Alexander fight convinced him that Khan was faster than both Mayweather and Pacquiao.
A few fans from the United Kingdom clapped in the back of the press conference, while the rest of the room stayed silent. The response wasn’t an endorsement of De La Hoya’s claims but it was also better than clamor or laughter, the likely reactions to the same statement a year ago.
Khan’s thorough undoing of Alexander could go down as the showing that propelled him to a new level.
“The Mayweather fight didn’t happen last year but I believe I earned it this year,” Khan said. “That’s where I belong.”
“I really believe my style will cause Floyd a lot more problems than a Pacquiao fight.”
Case Keefer can be reached at 948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.
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