Amir Khan hits out at Floyd Mayweather for failing to knock out Logan Paul

Amir Khan has slammed Floyd Mayweather for failing to knock out YouTuber-turned-boxer Logan Paul in their much-maligned exhibition bout, and insists that the outcome ‘looked bad’ for the all-time great.

Mayweather took on Paul, 26, in an eight-round fight in Miami earlier this month – but was taken the full distance after being unable to deliver a knockout blow on the outspoken novice. 

That meant Paul arguably took a shock moral victory, having managed to survive the encounter, and former world champion Khan has now hit out at Mayweather.

YouTuber-turned-boxer Paul (left) was able to last the full eight rounds against Mayweather

‘He couldn’t hurt Logan and it looked bad for him,’ he told the Last Stand Podcast. ‘Him being a trained professional fighter for many years, whereas Logan came, put his gloves on and went in the ring.

‘A lot of people said Floyd didn’t look the same. Really, he got more bad comments than he got good comments in that fight.

‘Did he really need the money? No. We don’t think he does.

The shock outcome meant that Paul took a shock moral victory, but the fight has been savaged

‘But going into that fight he got a lot more hate because he couldn’t knock out a guy who’s worse than a journeyman basically.’

‘Money’ more than lived up to his billing after he boasted about making $100million (£72m) for the controversial showdown, which was widely condemned by boxing purists and a number of his fellow fighters.

‘I’m the only person that can do a fake fight and get 100Ms (millions),’ Mayweather had said. ‘I could do legalised sparring and get 100Ms.’

The jaw-dropping payday for the 44-year-old came after he chose to take a step into one of boxing’s more recent crazes, which sees popular online influencers enter the ring in lavish – and lucrative – events.

Mayweather lived up to his ‘Money’ moniker when confirming he earned $100m from the fight

Former world champion Khan also said that the recent influencer craze is hurting boxing

It has not been to everybody’s liking, however, and Khan is the latest to have expressed his distaste. 

‘I’m not really a big fan of that exhibition thing,’ he added. 

‘No disrespect to Floyd or the other fighters that are doing that, but I just think it’s not good for the sport of boxing.

‘People are not taking boxing seriously and boxing’s a sport where, the time they are going to start taking it seriously is when someone gets badly hurt.

Mayweather has been accused by Khan of struggling to ‘hurt’ Paul despite his inexperience

‘We just don’t want that to happen and I think it would be quite tarnishing for boxing if God forbid a YouTuber got knocked out by a professional fighter.

‘You can’t really compare the two. I would never do that because I would be scared to hurt someone and if you hurt an influencer and you are the fighter that people always respected, you’re going to lose that respect.

‘Really, you shouldn’t be sharing the ring with that person.’