Floyd Mayweather has become an adept psychological fighter outside the ring as well as being boxing's No. 1 inside it.

Mayweather, hours after the SuperBowl, asked boxing fans on his Twitter account – with 4.5 million followers – to vote on whether he should fight Amir Khan next or Marcos Maidana. Mind games. Plain and simple. An act of trying to belittle the man he is expected to face in Las Vegas on May 3.

Don't believe a word of him taking any notice of what fans say in response. Negotiations are already at a very advanced stage. He simply wants fans to vent on Khan. And it has worked. He wants Khan, who has already admitted he has signed his portion of the contract to fight the American, to sweat.

Khan, 27, signed a contract in December that put him in line for a possible super-fight with Mayweather this year. But the Briton is still waiting to find out if he will face the unbeaten world light-middleweight champion. He'll be kept waiting for a few days yet.

Telegraph Sport understands that Mayweather has also, behind the scenes, demanded to Khan's people that he announce the fight, and that the Boltonian is to hold off giving any more quotes or interviews about the fight until Mayweather does so. Control, too. Mayweather has become all-powerful with his $250 million six-fight deal with Showtime, and he will squeeze opponents with everything he has.

Click here to read the rest of the article by Gareth A Davies, the boxing correspondent for The Telegraph: