By Michael Gibbons

Once upon a time, the prevailing joke in the boxing world was to land the big money fight with Floyd Mayweather you had to beat Andre Berto.

It now looks as if Chris Algieri is the next Andre Berto. Perhaps hoping to emulate Manny Pacquiao in landing a coveted Mayweather showdown, Amir Khan will now face the former 140 lb. titlist this weekend at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. A win by Khan figures to set up a big fight in the future, namely standing opposite corner for what has been suggested as the final fight of Mayweather’s incredible career.

Few if any figure Algieri to serve more as a supporting player in the bout, which headlines live on Spike TV (Friday, 9:00 p.m. ET). This is not to take anything away from Algieri. He seems like a nice guy and he is a good fighter.

However, an elite fighter he is not.

After a nice win against Emmanuel Taylor on the now-defunct ESPN2 Friday Night Fights series in early 2014, he was curiously thrown into the spotlight on HBO against rising Ruslan Provodnikov. This was meant as a tune up for Provodnikov before he got the big money fight with Manny Pacquiao.

However, Algieri flipped the script, outboxing Provodnikov to win an unpopular split decision despite being dropped twice and with the defending champion landing the more telling blows.

In true boxing form, Bob Arum saw a vulnerable light punching guy with one big controversial win and immediately cast him in the spotlight to face Pacquiao on PPV nonetheless. The plan was to make Manny look good and force the hand of Mayweather to setup “The Fight.

All went as planned. Algieri was routed, dropped six times in losing a lopsided unanimous decision. For those keeping keeping score at home: in 24 rounds against top level guys, Algieri has been dropped 8 times and won a total of 3 or 4 rounds judged by most people not named Ray Charles.

Conventional wisdom tells you that it’s now time for Algieri to go back to working his way back to respectability against top 15 level guys.

Unfortunately, this is boxing.  In order to look impressive and secure a mega fight with Mayweather, Khan has chosen Algieri as his next opponent. My question to Khan and to Mayweather’s people is, what can you do to look more impressive than what Pacquiao accomplished just 6 months ago?

Maybe knock him out of the ring like Bald Bull on Mike Tyson’s Punch Out? Or maybe box him only using his left hand.

Monday morning will roll around and people will be talking about how great Amir Khan looked this weekend and how he is the guy to beat Mayweather. Stylistically, he very well may be the guy to beat the reigning pound-for-pound king, but has he earned the right to land the fight? 

The real question we all have about Khan is his chin. The one guy in the welterweight division we know who can’t provide a meaningful answer is Chris Algieri.

Only in the world of boxing does any of this make sense.

Michael Gibbons is a former amateur standout and still-aspiring lightweight prospect, in addition to his newfound role as a freelance writer. Follow Michael on Twitter: @MAGibbons02