By Edward Chaykovsky
British star Amir Khan (31-3, 19KOs) says the driving force behind his decision to move up in weight was the inability to secure any of the big names at the welterweight limit of 147-pounds.
Khan is heading up to a catch-weight of 155-pounds for a fight with WBC middleweight champion Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez (46-1-1, 32KOs) on May 7 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
The fight will be carried by HBO Pay-Per-View.
Khan has been out of the ring since last May, when he won a twelve round decision over Chris Algieri. During much of that off-time, he unsuccessfully attempted to secure fights with Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao.
Last month, the World Boxing Council made him the mandatory challenger to WBC welterweight champion Danny Garcia. Even securing that fight was becoming an issue with both Garcia and his father/trainer publicly expressing their displeasure with having to make an immediate defense against Khan.
Khan saw Canelo as the biggest name available at the moment and he jumped on the opportunity to take the fight. Canelo will have a sizable advantage in weight, strength and punching power, but Khan is confident that his speed and boxing ability will be more than enough to push him through to a victory.
"The reason that I'm going up now, is because nobody in my division wants to fight me. Mayweather let me down, Pacquiao let me down, Danny Garcia let me down. So I'm in a position where people don't want to fight me. No one wants to fight me. I want the biggest fights. But right now I have my eye on one fight, that's Canelo," Khan told TMZ Sports.
Should Khan lose, there is still the possibility to stage a very lucrative fight in the UK with IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook, who defends his title against mandatory challenger Kevin Bizier on March 26th in Sheffield.
