Thaxton's chance could be gone

If Amir Khan fulfills any of the potential it is expected to, it is doubtful whether, people will look back with a critical in ten years' time and say "Yeah, but he never fought Jon Thaxton." What seems a big story today, isn't necessarily one in the future. So importance of the decision of Khan and his promoter, Frank Warren, to pull out of a purse bid for a British title but against Thaxton should not be overplayed, however disappointing it may seem at the moment.

Thaxton was apparently offered £100,000 to face Khan for Thaxton's British and Khan's Commonwealth title on February 2. The bout was then ordered by the British Boxing Board of Control with yesterday as the date for purse bids. Thaxton and Mick Hennessy, his promoter, turned down the offer and made a rival offer of £300,000 for Khan which was also rejected.

With the purse bid due, Hennessy and Thaxton felt they were on pretty solid ground and with the purse bid going 50-50 they hoped to be in store for a bit of a windfall. But there was no way it was going to go ahead. Warren has a contract to show Khan on ITV, with dates due on February 2 and in April then July. Khan boxing on Sky, where Hennessy has a contract, was never an option - ITV are only interested in showing Khan (they even turned their nose up at Joe Calzaghe (who, let us remember, beat Lewis Hamilton to the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award by 50,000 votes), which says a lot about the knowledge involved in the decision making there).

Neither was it really an option to split the purse 50-50 with Thaxton - Khan has big guarantees, but £100,000 is likely to be the biggest purse of Thaxton's career.

"We had our date, we announced immediately after our last fight the date was February 2 and the Board, in their wisdom, announced a purse bid three weeks later," Warren said. "We said 'why not put the purse bid back?' but they haven't and we have to collectively decide what to do. Is Jonathan Thaxton a step forward for Amir? Not according to Boxing News - they have Amir No 1 now in front of Jonathan Thaxton. Not until after this fight will we decide what we will do next. I don't think he'll be stripped (of the Commonwealth title)."

So Khan will be boxing Martin Kristjansen, Thaxton, who spent Christmas training in the hope of the Khan bout going ahead, is left fighting no one. John Murray is keen to face Thaxton, but that is not the money-spinner that 33-year-old Thaxton is after. He can but hope that Khan will fancy the fight for his April or, more likely, July date. If it is July, Thaxton needs to make himself a bit more attractive by trying to beat Yuri Romanov, the European champion from Belarus, in the meantime.

"I've seen a video of Kristjansen," Khan said. "He's more of a boxer - fast hands, high workrate, throws combinations a lot and is quite stand-up. He's beatable, I'll have to jab and counter his shots. It's a step up because I will have to think about how to beat a clever boxer."

Comments

[Phill Arrowsmith]

I understand why Khan has done this but it's a real shame. For a while it looked like this was going to be the year when we finally got all the British fighters to meet in the ring, harking back to the late Eighties when the British rivalries were as big as any in Boxing. When Haye v Maccarinelli was announced I full expected all the other bouts to fall into place. Sadly it's going the other way. Mitchell v Johanneson gets called off, a Hatton v Witter fight seems light years away and now this. At least we can be sure the big fellas will keep boring us to death with their pathetic merry go round.