Khan lands spot on Mayweather card

After launching an unsuccessful bid to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr. on May 3 at the MGM Grand Garden, Amir Khan will settle for the next best thing — being on Mayweather’s undercard.

Khan, a former world junior welterweight champion, faces hard-hitting Luis Collazo in a 12-round welterweight bout that will immediately precede Mayweather’s main-event 12-round welterweight unification title fight against Marcos Maidana.

Along with Khan-Collazo, two other big-name fights were added to the Showtime Pay Per View undercard. The first pits former world welterweight champion Adrien Broner against veteran junior welterweight Carlos Molina, a Californian who hasn’t fought since losing to Khan on Dec. 15, 2012. The 10-round fight will be contested at 140 pounds.

In the other undercard fight added to the card, undefeated super middleweight J’Leon Love will meet Marco Antonio Periban in a 10-round bout.

Khan had campaigned hard to get Mayweather to fight him and received a lot of criticism in the media for the way he went about it, using social media to plead his case, then acting like a sore loser when Mayweather chose to fight Maidana.

“Sure, it was disappointing,” Khan said Wednesday on a conference call. “It was tough mentally for me. But that’s in the past, and I’m trying to turn it into a positive. I came to America early to train in the Bay Area, and it gave me a chance to work with my trainer, Virgil Hunter, on my skills. And now that I know who I’m fighting, I can concentrate on my opponent.”

Khan (28-3, 19 knockouts) hasn’t fought in Las Vegas since July 14, 2012, when Danny Garcia stopped him in the fourth round at Mandalay Bay and took Khan’s World Boxing Association junior welterweight belt.

And while he has bounced back with two wins since losing to Garcia, Khan has not looked sharp. But he’s moving up to welterweight for the first time and thinks the move, coupled with being more comfortable with Hunter in his corner, will bring out his best.

“I think it’ll be perfect for me,” Khan said of moving from 140 pounds to 147. “I won’t have to kill myself to make weight.”

Khan, 27, said he and Hunter have been working on his defense so he doesn’t get tagged by Collazo, a hard-hitting southpaw who is coming off a dramatic second-round knockout of former world champ Victor Ortiz on Jan. 30.

“We’re making sure we have a high defensive level and not take any unnecessary chances,” Khan said. “It’s about being smart.”

This is the high-profile fight Collazo (35-5, 18 KOs) has been looking for since losing to Ricky Hatton in 2006, Shane Mosley in 2007 and Andre Berto in 2009.

“This is a fight that takes me to another level in the welterweight division,” said Collazo, 32.

While neither will admit it, Khan and Collazo know they essentially are auditioning for a shot at Mayweather in the fall.

“If it happens, it happens,” Khan said. “I know I’ll have Floyd’s eye that night.”

Collazo said: “I’m not thinking about Floyd. My focus is on Khan.”

Contact reporter Steve Carp at scarp@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2913. Follow him on Twitter: @stevecarprj.