Both fighters wasted no time in the opening round as they mixed it up on a give and take situation. Algieri seems to have initially found his target with some of his punches finding their mark. Algieri surprised Khan with a solid hard right that seemed to wobble Khan a bit.
The first two rounds were clearly Khan’s rounds despite Algieri’s solid right that landed on target in the first round as they continued their exchange of jabs and power punches.
In the third round, Algieri stepped up a bit with a series of jabs and body shots that landed on targets as he earned the round for the first time.
Algieri seemed to have found his range in the succeeding rounds as he started piling up points until the fifth round when Khan made some adjustments that appeared to reverse the situation in Khan’s favor as Khan took the sixth and seventh rounds.
Algieri tried to regain lost ground in the eighth round and seemed to have earned a point in the scorecards but Khan pulled away starting on the ninth round and never looked back up to the final round for a unanimous verdict.
Judges Scorecard: Two judges scored the fight at 117-111 in Khan’s favor while the third had it 115-113.
“I think everybody knows Amir Khan wants to fight Floyd Mayweather,” Khan said. “Mayweather is a champion, so let’s make it happen,” Khan said after the fight.
Mayweather is completing his $200 million six-fight contract with Showtime Sports and his Sept. 12 fight will be his last under said contract.
There are indications Mayweather is picking Amir Khan for his next fight but the Bolton native wants the fight in May next year because of Ramadan.
‘I can’t be ready for that date. Ramadan doesn’t finish until the end of July and I would need three months in training camp after that to prepare for a fight of this magnitude. The earliest I can be back in the ring after my fight here is late October or early November and that will have to be against another opponent,” said Khan.
Algieri thought he had cleaner and harder shots but did not question the judges verdict. It was his second loss since he won the WBO light welterweight title from Ruslan Provodnikov. The first was against Manny Pacquiao which he also lost via a unanimous decision.
“I’m disappointed,” Algieri said. “But I will watch the film from this fight and move on from there.”
