by David P. Greisman

Last night’s Super Bowl put the two best football teams together in the biggest one-night sporting event of the year. Sometimes the games are competitive and entertaining. Sometimes they are one, but not the other. Sometimes they are neither.

That latter scenario was the case last night as the Denver Broncos topped the Carolina Panthers, and it was also the case in last year’s boxing match between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao.

Mayweather-Pacquiao was the biggest event in the sport in the United States in ages, one that may never be surpassed in this country in this era of boxing having a niche following. Mayweather boxed wisely and expertly, negating Pacquiao en route to a unanimous decision. It was an excellent performance but not an exciting one. The bout, like the Super Bowl, was an event of great magnitude nonetheless.

The biggest events should be the biggest fights. But that’s not what we’ll be getting May 7, the Saturday after Cinco De Mayo, a date that has traditionally hosted major boxing pay-per-views. With Mayweather retired, the headliner this year will be Canelo Alvarez, the former 154-pound titleholder and current lineal middleweight champion, a huge star in Mexico with a big following among Mexican-Americans and increasing support from boxing fans in general.

It will be a big event, the first boxing match in the new T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, a pay-per-view coming on the tail of Alvarez’s victory last November over Miguel Cotto, a show that may be setting up a clash with middleweight titleholder Gennady Golovkin later this year.

It’s not a big fight, though. Alvarez is taking on Amir Khan, a former 140-pound titleholder and current 147-pound contender.

It is an understandable choice, even if it is a frustrating one. It will draw attention, a one-ring circus that will get people to step right up and be parted with their money, all so they can watch Khan attempt derring-do, a high wire act that will take precise technique in order to be performed successfully — or else he will be dropped and splattered.

There is more attention for Canelo vs. Khan than there would be were Alvarez to face two of the names that had been rumored as potential foes: Willie Monroe, who lost a sixth-round technical knockout to Golovkin last May and hasn’t fought since, and Gabriel Rosado, who had been beaten by a number of top middleweights (Golovkin, Peter Quillin, David Lemieux) and junior middleweight Jermell Charlo before picking up a victory last December over Joshua Clottey. Rosado at least had a reputation for being in entertaining fights.

They weren’t going to help make for a successful pay-per-view. They were otherwise on the level of what Alvarez’s team is looking for — to pick up a win and pick up a paycheck before a presumed collision with the dangerous Golovkin.

It’s not at all unusual for stars to take tune-ups before tougher dust-ups — Manny Pacquiao made quick work of Hector Velazquez in 2005 before his rematch with Erik Morales while Morales, on the same card, lost a decision to Zahir Raheem. (They went on with the rematch anyway.)

It’s not unheard of for those tune-ups to come on pay-per-view, especially when the fighter’s purses couldn’t be covered comfortably unless fans were charged extra to see them. Oscar De La Hoya and Bernard Hopkins fought in separate bouts on the same show in 2004 to set up their fight later in the year. Hopkins topped Robert Allen while De La Hoya struggled in a controversial win over Felix Sturm. (They went on with De La Hoya-Hopkins anyway.)

Alvarez’s team wasn’t going to put Canelo in with any of the other top 160-pounders. And given that Alvarez is still fighting at 155 pounds even though he is the lineal middleweight champion, there was likely little desire to match him with any of the better 154-pounders either. It’s not that Alvarez hasn’t faced them before. They just didn’t want to do anything to endanger the fight with Golovkin, lest the bout with GGG be going, going gone.

(And perhaps more of those top junior middleweights and middleweights would’ve been available than had recently been the case. While many are signed with Al Haymon, the powerful adviser who is no longer working with Golden Boy Promotions and whom Golden Boy is presently suing, Haymon also has Khan in his stable.)

The news of Canelo vs. Khan made waves last week. But there were as many raised eyebrows as there were dropped jaws.

Khan last held a world title in 2012, when he lost to Danny Garcia in a 140-pound bout. He soon began a move up toward the 147-pound division, struggling in a win over Julio Diaz in a bout where he was 142 pounds. Then came extended negotiations with Devon Alexander that failed to produce an agreement. And then Khan called out Mayweather without having enough on his record of late to merit the bout. Mayweather instead went with Marcos Maidana twice in 2014.

That year, Khan began to build up a case for contention at welterweight. He dominated Luis Collazo, then beat Alexander by one-sided decision. It wasn’t the greatest résumé, but he’d showed enough to make the idea of a fight with Mayweather intriguing. Instead, Mayweather-Pacquiao happened. Khan had some difficulty in a win over Chris Algieri, and then Mayweather had his swan song against Andre Berto.

Khan wasn’t even among the best at 147. Now he’s taking on the champion of the 160-pound division. That fuels critics, and those critics have a point. Just because Khan had done enough to be considered for a fight with the best boxer of this era doesn’t mean he’s done enough for a fight with the middleweight champ to be considered competitive.

Then again, the middleweight champion is essentially still a junior middleweight. Khan is a 147-pounder who will be facing a 155-pounder.

The other side of that, though, is the amount of weight Canelo gains between weigh-in and fight night. He will likely be significantly heavier than Khan. Sometimes that can give the smaller fighter an advantage if he tries to out-box and out-quick his larger, slower opponent. But sometimes the smaller fighter won’t be able to hurt the bigger man and won’t be able to take his shots in return.

Given Khan’s history — a first-round knockout loss to Breidis Prescott at lightweight in 2008, the stoppage loss to Garcia at junior welterweight in 2012, being hurt late by Marcos Maidana but surviving to win in 2010, and getting off the canvas to beat Diaz in 2013 — it’s fair to envision the harm that could happen if Canelo lands clean.

It’ll also be interesting to see how much weight Khan adds on and what effect that may have on him, whether it slows him or if he carries it well.

Manny Pacquiao remained at 142 pounds for his fight with De La Hoya. He also benefited from De La Hoya draining himself down to 145 pounds and Oscar being at the end of his career.

That’s one reason why those who think of Pacquiao-De La Hoya as one precedent for Khan’s challenge of Canelo are making a false comparison. And while Sugar Ray Leonard was coming off a years-long layoff and went all the way up to middleweight to face Marvin Hagler, Leonard had at least shown himself to be the best at 147 before challenging the best of 160. Ditto for Bernard Hopkins, the middleweight champion who challenged light heavyweight champion Antonio Tarver, and Roy Jones, the light heavyweight king who challenged heavyweight titleholder John Ruiz.

This doesn’t even compare to the flirtations we’d heard last year about welterweight Timothy Bradley potentially going up to face Cotto back when Cotto was the middleweight champ, one who like Canelo was competing barely above the junior-middleweight limit. Khan does have height, however, and he does have speed. He does have a chance, too, so long as he boxes well, avoids as many clean punches from Canelo as possible and is able to take whatever Canelo does land.

That’s a tough task. It’s a high-wire act, one in which Khan will need to be a ringmaster.

Otherwise, we’ll continue to wait for Canelo to face the fighter seen as the best middleweight in the world, just as we were waiting for Cotto to do the same. It’s understandable why Canelo is facing Khan now. And it’s undeniable that he needs to face Golovkin next.

We shouldn’t be made to wait much longer. This one-ring circus is a show that shouldn’t go on the road.

“Fighting Words” appears every Monday on BoxingScene.com. Pick up a copy of David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide. Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com



