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Amir Khan will return to the ring on May 29th to face fellow former junior welterweight champion Chris Algieri in a bout that will headline a Spike TV televised fight card. According to a press release by Premiere Boxing Champions last Wednesday, the fight will be held at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, USA.
On a Roll
The fight will mark Khan’s first ring appearance of the year. The 28-year old Bolton, England native is coming off a one sided unanimous decision win over American Devon Alexander last December 13th to win the token WBC Silver welterweight title.
The win over Alexander was his fourth straight overall and under the tutelage of the world famous Virgil Hunter. Khan changed trainers after losing back to back bouts to Lamont Peterson and Danny Garcia. Khan won his first world title in 209 when he outpointed Andreas Kotelnik to win the WBA light welterweight title. Khan successfully defended the belt four times and then unified it with IBF version after knocking out Zab Judah in 2011.
Chasing Mayweather
Since losing to Danny Garcia, Khan moved up to 147 pounds in search of a big money fight against former Freddie Roach stable-mate Manny Pacquiao and Pound for Pound king Floyd Mayweather Jr., who incidentally will be finally facing each other on May 2nd in Las Vegas.
After beating Julio Diaz in April of 2013, Khan sought a fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr but instead, Mayweather chose to fight Canelo Alvarez in his last fight of 2013. Despite being spurned, Khan was included in an online poll conducted by Mayweather himself to determine his next opponent. Khan unofficially won the poll, but was rejected by Mayweather two more times as the Money Man chose to fight Argentinian slugger Marcos Maidana twice last year. Once again left out in favor of Pacquiao, Khan hopes a big win over Algieri will put him in line to face the Mayweather-Pacquiao winner late this year.
New York’s Own
Chris Algieri rose to boxing prominence when he upset former WBO Junior welterweight champion Ruslan Provodnikov in June of 2014. In what was considered as the biggest upsets of 2014, Algieri fought Provodnikov with virtually one eye for more than half of the fight and survived an early onslaught from the hard-hitting Siberian Rocky. The win over Provodnikov would become his meal ticket to fighting Manny Pacquiao last November in Macau, China. Pacquiao dominated Algieri for 12 rounds but he couldn’t put away the gritty American.
New York isn’t only Algieri’s home town, as it is a significant place for both fighters. Algieri, the Huntington, New York native, will be fighting at the site where he beat Provodnikov last year while Khan also returns to New York where he made his successful US debut in 2010 when he beat Paulie Malignaggi.
