by Edward Chaykovsky
Promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Sport is backing the recent statements that were made by WBC/WBA welterweight and junior middleweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr.
British star Amir Khan is chasing a May 2nd date with Mayweather. The pound-for-pound king, in a recent interview on BoxingScene.com, said Khan wasn't known enough and his name didn't carry "enough weight" for a pay-per-view event.
Hearn agrees with Mayweather's opinion, stating that Khan's name value will do no better on American pay-per-view than Marcos Maidana or Robert Guerrero.
“Floyd's doing 800 or 900 thousand buys per [Showtime] pay-per-view event. That's the standard number. Khan [vs. Mayweather] only does 800,000 buys. If Khan was creating PPV numbers of say 2 million, they would take the fight with him straight away. And Mayweather could lose that fight. They're very clever in who they fight and I just can't see them going for Amir next,” Hearn said to Gareth Davies of The Telegraph.
Even though he doesn't promote either boxer, Hearn does has a dog in the fight. If Mayweather passes on Khan, then Hearn wants to get Amir in the ring with IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook. Hearn already set aside Wembley Stadium for June 13 - in the event Khan is interested in making the Brook clash.
“I just feel that if Amir doesn't fight Floyd Mayweather he has to fight Kell Brook. What were his numbers against Alexander - 700 or 800 thousand dollars? Obviously there was a little bit of UK money. Let's call it one and a half million US dollars. He'd make minimum five and probably more like six or seven million US dollars to fight Kell Brook.”
