By Edward Chaykovsky
British star Amir Khan (31-3, 19KOs) shocked everyone when he announced on Tuesday that he was going to move up by eight pounds, to 155-pounds, to challenge Saul "Canelo" Alvarez for the WBC middleweight crown.
The HBO Pay-Per-View fight is scheduled for May 7th from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Khan's decision to move up was especially surprised since his team was involved in serious negotiations to fight IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook on June 4th in London.
Amir's father, Shah Khan, recently stated that his son was going to take a stay-busy fight in March, when Brook was making a mandatory against Kevin Bizier. If the stay-busy fight went as planned, Shah said his son would return in the summer against Brook or WBC welterweight champion Danny Garcia, who owes Khan a mandatory defense.
Khan says the discussions have been taking place with Golden Boy Promotions for some time. There were two options on the table and Khan saw Canelo as the more lucrative path to take and also a path where a victory would catapult his career to new heights. Against Canelo, Khan is a massive underdog. Most viewed the bout with Brook as a 50-50 proposition.
Khan said to Sky Sports: "Me and Golden Boy [Canelo's promoters] have been speaking since last September. We were just talking, not even negotiating, just talks going on between Golden Boy and my team.
"Obviously at the same time the Kell Brook fight was being talked about with Eddie Hearn. It seemed to me Kell Brook's team went on and fought Bizier and that left me with an opponent to pick and I went on and picked Alvarez.
"We wanted to fight Pacquiao before that but that didn't come through. But this fight has, so Alvarez is the guy I'm fighting next and I'm going to be ready for it. It's a huge, massive opportunity for me to show how good I am. I am going into this fight as an underdog and I'm definitely going to prove how good Amir Khan is."
Shah explained that a fight with Brook will always be there in the future, while a clash with Canelo was a one-time opportunity on the table that might not come around again. Win or lose, Khan can always move back down to face Brook.
Shah said: "The fight [with Brook] is always there anyway, it can still happen. Amir is preparing for Canelo now and he is looking forward to it. He has never ducked anybody, if he was ducking anybody, why would he fight a bigger guy? He wants big fights and dangerous fights."
