By Edward Chaykovsky
Former champion Amir Khan is ready to take the show on the road to Dubai - if he doesn't land a fight in the fall with WBC/WBA welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. There appears to be a scheduling issue that makes the fight unlikely.
Last year Khan was very close to facing IBF welterweight champion Devon Alexander as part of a big event in Dubai. Khan decided to step back and focus his efforts on a May fight with Mayweather. He was passed over in favor of Marcos Maidana.
Mayweather is firmly committed to returning on September 13th, but Khan is unavailable due to religious reasons and wants to fight in October or November. It seems more in line that Mayweather will have a rematch with Maidana.
“It was disappointing it [a Dubai fight] didn’t come off because I was really hoping to get that big fight there. It was very close, it got so close that we really thought that we had it, but at the last minute it got dropped and it didn’t happen,” said Khan.
“If I don’t get the Mayweather fight, then it’s probably worth trying to get a fight in Dubai next. I’ll see how it goes, I’ll speak to my team and now, with Al Haymon advising me, I’ll leave it to him. But I’d love to fight in Dubai, I think it’d be nice, something different.
“I think that’s what made Muhammad Ali such a big star — because he fought in Africa, the Philippines — and that’s what we want to do as well.”
