Amir Khan claims Floyd Mayweather wanted him to postpone retirement for fight

Floyd Mayweather vs. Amir Khan is officially dead.

Mayweather was scheduled to have an exhibition fight last Saturday against Don Moore, but the event was canceled when UAE President Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan UAE President unexpectedly died.

Khan (34-6, 21 KOs), who frequents Dubai regularly, revealed that he and Mayweather had a face-to-face conversation about possibly fighting one another. Whether the idea was a professional bout or an exhibition was not disclosed.

Khan divulged to Mayweather that he planned to announce his retirement the following day. The former junior welterweight titlist then claimed Mayweather tried to coax him into postponing his retirement for one last fight.

“Floyd said to me ‘Look, we should get it on.’ And I said ‘Brother, tomorrow I’m going to announce my retirement.’ And he goes ‘No, I don’t think you should’. Obviously, pro fighters say to you all your life ‘we should fight each other’ and they keep you on the side, on the bench and I’m like forget that man, I want to be in control of myself," Khan told The Sun.

“When I call it a day, I call it a day. I don’t not call it a day because someone else is taking control like Floyd Mayweather or Manny Pacquiao say now we’ll fight you. Waiting around and waiting around for them so I thought nah man, I’ll do what’s best for me.”

During his prime, Khan tried everything he could to land a fight with the Hall of Famer Mayweather (50-0, 27 KOs), a former five-division world champion.

His best chance came in 2014 when Mayweather posted a poll on Instagram and Twitter, where he asked fans to select his next opponent. Khan won the fan vote. However, Mayweather disregarded the results and chose Argentina's Marcos Maidana, who Khan outpointed in 2010.

Mayweather announced his retirement the following year, but came back two years later, in August 2017, to knockout UFC star Conor McGregor in 10 rounds.