Amir Khan’s desperate, unbecoming pursuit of a fight with Floyd Mayweather hit another flat note on Friday night in Brooklyn, when the former two-times junior welterweight champion failed to make a statement in a showcase fight designed to make him look good.

Twice Khan has essentially put his career on hold to wait by the phone for Mayweather’s call. Twice he has been left holding the bag by the sport’s pound-for-pound king, who towers so high over boxing that a chance to share the ring with him represents an achievement in itself, not least due to the obscene payday it represents.

But rather than further his case against the best available competition – like, say, his fellow British welterweight Kell Brook – Khan announced in April he was fighting Chris Algieri, a limited opponent tailor-made for his polished skills.

That backfired when Khan was taken into reasonably deep waters by Algieri in a 12-round welterweight fight at the Barclays Center. He escaped with an uncontroversial unanimous points win, but not before fending off an unexpectedly stiff challenge from the 8-1 underdog, whose relentless pressure, work rate and underrated athleticism had Khan fighting off his back heel throughout the fight.

“Styles make fights and Chris Algieri had a style which was very tough for me to beat,” Amir said. “He was very long, very slick at times. We didn’t expect him to come forward like he did. We thought he was going to be on the back foot so that way we could start putting pressure on him and breaking him down, but he showed a lot of heart in there and took some good shots and just kept coming back.”

By now Amir knows better than anyone that life is what happens to you while you are busy making other plans. To his credit, he made all the right tactical adjustments against Algieri and imposed his pace on the fight in the championship rounds. But he looked far too hittable to instill much confidence should he strike the Mayweather jackpot. If Algieri’s right hands were tagging him all night, imagine what a far slicker and more experienced champion could manage.

“Khan ran,” Algieri’s trainer John David Jackson said. “He ran, held and grabbed. All he wanted was to get that lottery, which is Floyd Mayweather. He didn’t dominate this fight. He did come out the victor but a lot of people will question it.”

Amir no longer deserves a fight with Mayweather, not after how he has gone about it. But that does not mean he will not get it.

The door to opportunity seldom requires a picked lock, only the right combination. Right now the time is right, the variables having at last broken in Amir’s favour. Mayweather has one fight remaining on his six-bout, $250m contract with Showtime. After vanquishing Manny Pacquiao in May, the American’s supply of credible opponents has gone alarmingly dry.

Danny García seemed bound for the requisite name recognition but his stock has cooled and he remains untested at 147lb. Keith Thurman is a similarly hard sell, a little-known entity among casual fans. That leaves Amir as the clubhouse leader by default.

“Where does Floyd go from here?” Amir asked. “Floyd said, ‘Amir, prove yourself at 147lb, have some fights at 147lb, then we’ll see if we can get the fight done,’ and I’ve proven myself. Who else is out there for Floyd? Nobody. There’s nowhere to hide.

“We have answered all the questions. People want to see something different in a fight with Floyd. Manny Pacquiao didn’t show what we thought he was going to show, but I do know exactly what to do in that fight. He’s a very technical fighter, a very skilful fighter, but I’ve just known for a long, long time that a style like that definitely suits me.”

Virgil Hunter, the 61-year-old retired probation officer who inherited Amir from seven-times trainer of the year Freddie Roach, was bound to a more pragmatic tack. “His IQ will never match Floyd Mayweather’s IQ,” Hunter said. “The years of repetition, day in and day out, doing the same thing. His body and mind just processes real quick. That’s the gift that he has.”

When asked to rate Amir’s chances against the longtime welterweight kingpin, Hunter said Amir’s youth and hand speed could be the key variables against the 38-year-old Mayweather. “I think [Khan] has the attributes,” he said, “and if he can lock in and prep himself right for a fight of that magnitude and handle the pressure that comes along with it, I’m confident he’ll give a good account of himself.”

To be fair, Friday’s fight was a bit of a no-win situation for Amir. So widely was he expected to win that nearly no possible outcome would have been enough to impress. “I’ve been chasing it a long time, and when you chase a fight sometimes it’s really hard to focus on who you have in front of you,” he said. “And then you’ve got everyone saying that Chris Algieri was going to be a walk in the park.

“I’m very happy I didn’t take this fight lightly, because I could not have beaten him if I did, so then that dream for me would have been gone against Floyd.”

For now the dream persists and it might not be much longer before it becomes a reality. “Where does Floyd go from here?” Amir said. “The fight should happen now.”