BT: Hypothetically speaking, if a fight between Floyd Mayweather and Amir Khan did take place, do you think his speed will be that missing ingredient that could cause Floyd more trouble than he's had with some of his recent opponents?
VH: Well, you know what, Ben? I think it has its place for sure, but I think countering is just as important and knowing when and when not to, and kind of not falling for what you think is the illusion of Floyd, you know, what appears to be there is not. It's hard to say because when you see a guy execute flawlessly like that, it's kinda hard to say. It would even be...to get a game plan against Floyd could even be counterproductive when you should prepare your fighter for just anything, you know. It would be counterproductive most of the way. I think that if this fight happens, we would seek a game plan, but I would seek another alternative, another avenue.
BT: If that fight did happen, when it comes to watching film on Floyd, how far back would you go? Would you just watch footage on his current fights or would you go back earlier in his career to look for something you can exploit?
VH: I don't think I would look at any tapes. I think that I would prepare myself for the moment that what's happening instead of has happened. I don't think that I would look at any tapes; I don't think I would encourage the kid to look at any tapes because I think in order to, in this situation, the more he knows about himself will help him more than as opposed to knowing about Floyd. It's almost like going to, you know, if you got sentenced to death and you're going to be executed by lethal injection. Well, the more you learn about it, the more scared you might be. The less you know about it, whatever is unknown, since you don't know, then you tend to prepare yourself from within as opposed to without.
So, it's almost like, I forgot his name, he's dead now; I can't think of his name [Norman Mailer], but you know it, in the documentary "[When] We Were Kings" and he was talking about George Foreman hitting the heavy bag. Like he said, Ali walked by that every day and never looked in on this man hitting this heavy bag; he didn't want to see that. He heard it, but he didn't want to witness it, you see, because that can play games with you. So this is me talking now. I don't know then, if that ever happens, what I would do; this is me talking now. But because I don't know if that fight will ever take place or not, you know, I don't know the situation about this fight, I haven't fully, you know, engaged myself into what could happen or what to do or what game plan I should go about. If it does happen, I mean, it will get addressed.
BT: Assuming that Floyd is going to fight on May 3, how soon would you want to know that Amir Khan is indeed his next opponent so you can begin those preparations?
VH: That would be great to know before this year is up, or at least January; that would be great to know. Obviously it's going to take great preparation, and then, you know, you're talking about the press tour and the whole thing that they do. That's quite grueling, so you want it to take place as far ahead of a camp as possible. So that would be great to have that kind of notice.
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