Amir Khan: Take note Al Haymon didn’t stop Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez fight

Amir Khan wants the fighters and promoters who use Al Haymon as an excuse for preventing fights to reconsider. The powerful boxing manager didn’t block Khan from making a daring two-weight-class jump to fight middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez.

“The best should be fighting the best,” Khan told the Los Angeles Times in a telephone conversation Tuesday. “All fighters -- young fighters -- should go after those big fights.”

Amid the divisiveness inflamed with both Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions and veteran fight promoter Bob Arum’s Top Rank Inc. currently suing Haymon in federal court for claims of monopolistic practices, De La Hoya reached out to Khan and found him agreeable to the deal, with Haymon’s blessing.

When Haymon moved to form PBC and parted ways with De La Hoya in early 2015, he struck a settlement with Golden Boy Promotions that allowed him to retain many fighters he managed, including Khan.

De La Hoya kept his prized possession Alvarez.

England’s Khan (31-3, 19 knockouts) said an HBO pay-per-view date with Alvarez (46-1-1, 32 KOs) on May 7 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas delivers to him the opportunity he’d sought in earlier failed attempts to fight unbeaten Floyd Mayweather Jr. or former stablemate Manny Pacquiao.

“Other fights,” instead of Alvarez now, “might’ve been easier,” said Khan, who most recently fought former junior-welterweight world champion Chris Algieri in a May 2015 welterweight bout. “I’m looking for a fight that can make history. Winning a fight like this can definitely make me the top man in boxing.

“Oscar came to me and asked if I wanted the fight and I said, ‘Yes, it’s a great fight.’ As I thought more about it, I said, ‘This can be a monster fight for me. ‘Canelo’ is a big man, but it’s a big fight and if I win, this is the best thing for me.’”

Haymon, the secretive, powerful manager of Mayweather and an estimated 200 others who last year formed Premier Boxing Champions, has been pointed to as a major obstacle due to his protective stances of fighters such as Mayweather, featherweight champion Leo Santa Cruz, light-heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson and welterweight champion Danny Garcia.

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But he’s been making fights with others at a more frequent pace this year.

After working with Arum on Mayweather-Pacquiao, Haymon agreed to a deal that ended his own banishment by HBO by placing his unbeaten mandatory middleweight title challenger Dominic Wade against Gennady Golovkin on Saturday at the Forum, and also struck a deal with British promoter Eddie Hearn for a Charles Martin-Anthony Joshua heavyweight title fight earlier this month in which Martin -- Haymon’s fighter -- was knocked out in the second round.

A cynic might snicker that Haymon will cooperate as long as his fighter is making the most lucrative purse possible. Otherwise, compelling bouts are avoided, with PBC fighters keeping their matters in-house.

“Al has never stood in the way of fighters bettering themselves,” PBC spokesman Tim Smith said. “While there have been big deals made about political factions in boxing, Al is not an obstructionist to fighters who want the fights they desire.”

Khan, training in Hayward, Calif., under Virgil Hunter’s guidance, said he believes “my body’s right. I’m not feeling too much muscle, not gaining too much strength. The extra weight will give me strength. It’s just going to be there, hasn’t been forced upon me. And the speed’s going to come on its own. I’ve always had speed. I know I’m smaller than ‘Canelo.’

“What’s going to work for me in the fight is my speed, movement and accuracy. I think I throw a better, more accurate shot. It’s a good fight for me to show where I belong.”

If he pulls the upset, Khan said he’ll likely return to welterweight level for a rematch with unbeaten World Boxing Council champion Garcia, who knocked out Khan in 2012, or explore bouts at super-welterweight level.

Khan’s chin has been suspect since a first-round knockout loss early in his career and the Garcia loss, but he showed heroic resolve in the 2010 fight of the year against Marcos Maidana, and he said boxing ability is his route to what would be a stunning triumph over Alvarez.

“I saw he’s not like me. He’s tough and strong, but I feel there’s something in my skill set … I can definitely fight him and beat him,” Khan said of the 25-year-old Alvarez. “I see something in him I can take advantage of. He has a quick fist. My speed is my edge. He has power, but his feet [are] slower.

“I’m not going to stand there giving him free shots. I’m going to make sure we don’t get hit. I know it’s going to probably happen in the fight, but we’ve trained to deal with it. I’ll be focused the whole fight to not make any mistakes.”

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