British boxing legend Amir Khan has stated that he would have beaten Floyd Mayweather had they fought when they were in their primes. Amir Khan – who recently hung up his gloves from professional boxing following a stoppage loss to bitter rival Kell Brook â€“ is confident that he would have outclassed Mayweather should they have ever shared the ring together. Albeit, he admitted to be a subject of criticism from fans with regards to his unpopular opinion about the undefeated American. He made his rather controversial opinion known during a conversation on Gary Neville’s The Overlap show with Sky Sports, where he claimed that he would have beaten the American boxer at their best. “You know what? I’d beat him. If I was in my prime I’m very confident,” Khan said. "I’m going to get a lot of hate for that, I’m sorry guys, but you have to believe in yourself and that’s one thing I’ve always done throughout my career. 

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“I think stylistically, when Mayweather was a lot younger he had a lot of speed, a lot of movement, but I feel that my speed would have beaten his speed, my movement would have beaten his movement and he really wasn’t the biggest puncher in the game so it would have been like a game of chess, but I would have outboxed him.” 

(Scroll to 10:23 in the below video to watch Khan's response about Mayweather)

The pair were due to fight back in 2014 and had been widely touted to compete in an exhibition bout earlier this year, but Mayweather denied such speculation. 

In a further discussion, the 35-year-old retiree shed light on his proposed match with Mayweather eight years ago that was called off by the latter as a result of controversy over publicity.

“When me and him were supposed to fight I remembered that I signed all the contracts and everything was negotiated. Everything was signed off and why didn’t it happen? Because I announced it first before him. Can you believe that? He wanted to be the man to announce the fight, but because he didn’t get to do it he said ‘I’m not fighting you.’

“He went and fought somebody I’d already beat Marcos Maidana and it was quite embarrassing. I thought ‘wow’ but that’s Mayweather and he believes in his own ego and himself so much that he has to make all the decisions, no-one can announce anything before him. At the end of the day credit it to him because he’s proven himself with what he’s done in the sport of boxing.” 

Khan had quite an illustrious stint during his 17-year spell of professional boxing after becoming Britain’s youngest boxing Olympic medalist in 2004. The biggest highlight of his career, however, was the time when he held the unified light welterweight world championship between 2009 and 2012, including the WBA and IBF titles. 

While Floyd Mayweather stands among the greatest boxers of all time as he remained undefeated in 50 fights leading up to retirement, he will need to settle scores with Amir Khan to assert his supremacy once again at the biggest stage.