It may well be the fight that most promoters, boxing aficionados and the general public have been eagerly anticipating for years, as it has been confirmed that Floyd Mayweather, Jr and Manny Pacquiao have agreed to box each other later this year, but Britain's Amir Khan does not seem to be too impressed by all of the hype surrounding the contest. Bolton-born Khan suggests that the fight could end up being 'boring' and 'dull'. Mayweather has brushed off that suggestion by offering the British boxer a ticket to watch the bout live in Las Vegas.
Twenty-eight-year-old Khan clearly believes that both boxers are now past their peak, although he recognises that their past records mean that the fight is still big business within the boxing industry.
However, he does not see the fight living up to the expectations that the viewing public will have of it, when the two star attractions face each other inside the ring on May 2nd at the MGM Grand. Khan himself is seeking a fight with Mayweather (or failing that Pacquiao) before he calls time on his career, describing the decision to take on the Filipino boxer instead as 'the easy route'.
Mayweather, 38, has been the 'real deal' throughout his illustrious boxing career, still undefeated as a professional after 47 fights, a five-division world champion and often rated as the best pound-for-pound boxer in the world. Pacquiao, two years younger than his rival, is no 'slouch' himself, although he has lost five of his 57 professional fights, but is an eight-division world champion.
Such is the anticipation around the fight that ringside tickets could cost as much as £100,000 and the demand is likely to be so high that they may not go on general sale at all. The fight is likely to generate hundreds of millions of pounds in revenue in total. Mayweather's free ticket offer is not to be sneezed at then, but Khan is thinking of more than just the financial side of a match-up with Mayweather, he also knows that he would be taking on a legend in a sport that he has always sought to become the best in himself.
On hearing of Khan's wariness about the likely standard of the fight, Mayweather's typically diplomatic response was that he was "touched Amir is concerned" and that he could get him a ticket to see what "the biggest fight in the history of boxing looks like." No pressure or additional expectations on either boxer there then!
