By Norm Frauenheim-
LAS VEGAS, Nev. – Amir Khan might be a big underdog against Canelo Alvarez Saturday, but he won the news conference Wednesday.
Khan scored a knockout with a punch line.
“You never know, but this could be the last fight for me and Canelo here,’’ Khan said at the MGM Grand. “That’s it, if Donald Trump becomes president.’’
Khan is Muslim, a UK fighter of Pakistani descent. Canelo is Mexican. Trump’s call to make America great again doesn’t exactly include either.
Trump, the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee, has campaigned by saying he would bar Muslims. He’s also promising to build a wall, 10 feet high, along the border between the U.S. and Mexico.
Oh yeah, Trump also might be at the Khan-Canelo fight Saturday night in the T-Mobile Arena’s boxing debut.
After Khan’s line, promoter Oscar De La Hoya announced that Trump would be attending the middleweight bout for Canelo’s World Boxing Council title.
“I just received confirmation that Trump will be here Saturday night,’’ De La Hoya said.
De La Hoya re-confirmed to a handful of reporters after the news conference that he had been told Trump had accepted his offer.
De La Hoya offered Trump two tickets last week during an appearance on Cavuto Coast to Coast on Fox Business News.
Tickets are still available for the fight, an HBO pay-per-view bout. The billionaire politician, who got Mike Tyson’s endorsement last weekend and was at ringside for Gennady Golovkin’s victory over David Lemieux at Madison Square Garden in October, could probably afford to spring for a couple of tickets on his own dime.
But De La Hoya wants Trump to witness a unique, international event between two accomplished athletes from backgrounds he has targeted with comments that have angered Mexicans and immigrants.
“”I have Amir Khan, a Muslim fighter from the U.K., fighting against the most popular boxer in Mexico, Canelo Alvarez, opening up the new T-Mobile Arena,” De La Hoya said when he first made an offer that he figured Trump could only refuse. “We have an opportunity to show Mr. Trump just what Mexicans and Muslims can achieve — and in a city that screams America: Las Vegas. Trump, let me invite you so that you can see what a Mexican and a Muslim can generate.”
It’s not exactly clear where Trump, a former business associate of Don King and Bob Arum, would be seated if he shows up, presumably with somebody other than Ted Cruz. At recent campaign stops in California, violence erupted among demonstrators opposed to Trump, whose name has been booed loudly by fight crowds ever since the ex-promoter became a politician.
“Not in ringside seat,’’ De La Hoya said during the news conference. “But we’ll make sure he sees the fight.’’
