By Frank Warren

Amir Khan seems confident that victory over Devon Alexander in Las Vegas tonight will earn him a mega-bucks showdown with the Money Man himself, Floyd Mayweather Jnr., next year. I am not so sure.

Khan may consider this non-title welterweight 12 rounder at the MGM Grand a dress rehearsal for the big production number but fickle Floyd always directs his own show and picks the leading man.  It is by no means certain that Khan figures so highly on his to-be-hit list especially while the possibility of the match-up the world has awaited for so long, Mayweather against Manny Pacquiao, edges closer to reality.

Personally, I think it far more probable that Khan will end up fighting in a tasty all-British domestic dust-up with Sheffield’s unbeaten Kell Brook, now the IBF welterweight champion, over here in the spring.

In fact, I hear preliminary talks have already taken place between the two camps, which suggests that those around Khan are not as confident as him about getting Mayweather to the table, even though both have the same American adviser in Al Haymon.

While Mayweather is a really big money fight, Khan could pocket a tidy few bob in his new £30,000 white nappa leather boxing fancy pants for a pay-per-view blockbuster that could sell out a northern football ground - or perhaps even Wembley with the right build-up. And I think it would be an easier fight for him than against Mayweather or Pacquiao, either of whom might then feel more inclined to meet the winner.

First, however, Khan has to beat Alexander, who he should have fought a year ago, when the 27-year-old from St Louis held a world title. He pulled out in anticipation of a Mayweather fight and Alexander lost that crown to Shawn Porter, who subsequently had it taken from him by Brook.

After a couple of tepid performances Khan seemed to have re-discovered his mojo against rated Luis Collazo last May but his defence can still be as fragile as that of my team Arsenal’s. It leaks alarmingly when the pressure is on.

People say he is just chinny, but I don’t agree. Anyone who gets hit on the whiskers is likely to go over and the art is to avoid that happening.  Khan’s defence has always been something he has needed to work on.

Not that Alexander really has enough power to blast his way through it. Which is why I fancy Khan to win his second bout as a full-blown welterweight fairly comfortably in this Sky-televised scrap.

At 28 he seems huge now to the relatively skinny teenage lightweight who turned pro with me after winning a silver medal in the 2004 Olympics. But while he has gained weight he has never lost that essential speed. He also has a brave heart and a great engine though I do not think he has been fighting as regularly as he should.

I firmly believe top fighters should keep as busy in order to retain that physical and mental sharpness. Too many take their eye off the punchball between contests and I just hope that has ceased happening with new dad Khan.

***

The elevation of Naseem Hamed to the pugilistic peerage- boxing’s International Hall of Fame- is something I applaud, though there will be plenty around the fight game who won’t.

It is 12 years since the boxer formerly known as Prince last strutted his stuff during a glitzy career in which he got up as many noses as he bloodied. But with his sublime skills, shameless showboating and ferocious punch, he never short-changed anyone, though he upset and often insulted many along the way. Me included.

He famously fell out with promoters, managers, fellow fighters, even his great father-figure trainer Brendan Ingle (who incidentally has just celebrated 50 years in boxing) and ultimately the media.

He was arrogant and narcissistic but by God he could fight. Pound for pound he was one of the best boxers and certainly the biggest puncher Britain has ever seen. At his peak he was the finest featherweight in the world bar none. Arguably the most talented boxer I have ever encountered but who ultimately underachieved. He could have been even greater if only he had not been so misguidedly vain and lived the life a professional athlete should.

I promoted Naz for the best part of his career, taking him from provincial leisure centres to Madison Square Garden. He won his world titles with me and I gave him a national audience with ITV. In all he defended his WBO world title 15 times and also held the WBC and IBF belts. His record of 36-1, with 31 knockouts, stands with the very best.

Which is why him becoming one of the few post-war British fighters in the Hall of Fame is an honour long overdue. Some argue that he should be debarred because of his prison sentence- he was jailed in May 2006 for 15 months for a dangerous driving incident which left another driver seriously injured. But serving time – in his case for rape - didn’t prevent Mike Tyson from being elected.

A swaggering showboater whose spectacular entrances included being deposited in the ring via a flying carpet, on a palanquin, in a Chevrolet, and behind an incense-spraying mullah, Naz began to lose the plot when his brothers started to interfere in his career. Families and fighters are never a happy mix and rarely work.

The end with me came in October 1998 when one of them started to negotiate a fight behind my back.  Naz’s dad, a nice man, turned up at my hotel room in Atlantic City before he fought Wayne McCullough and pleaded with me not to go to home before the fight.  After the fight I flew home and never contacted him again. He got a deal with Sky and three years later was given an embarrassing going-over by Marco Antonio Barrera in Las Vegas before being booed out of the ring his final fight against Manuel Calvo at the London Arena. I found that sad.  He went on record saying he should have stayed with me.

Yet he remains one of the genuinely great modern fighters and as such he deserves his place up there alongside the giants of the sport.

***

The Amir Khan show is not the only ticket in town tomorrow. Further along The Strip in Las Vegas, at the Cosmopolitan, Russian emigre Matt Korobov, another thunder-punching beast from the east, meets Bow-born Irishman Andy Lee for the vacant WBO middleweight title..

The BoxNation-televised fight is one Billy Joe Saunders will watch eagerly, for two reasons: Not only will he meet the winner for the championship in the New Year but should 30-year-old Lee win he will become the first Traveller to acquire a world title, thus beating Romany  Billy Joe to the punch. Unbeaten Korobov is favourite but don’t write off Lee. He is trained by David Haye’s mentor Adam Booth who doesn’t mess with mugs.

The bill also features former welterweight champ Timothy Bradley against tough Argentinian Diego Chaves.  Live coverage on BoxNation starts at 2am.

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