By Scott Gilfoid: For some reason Amir Khan (29-3, 19 KO’s) isn’t talking up a fight against WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao (56-5-2, 38 KO’s). You would think that with Top Rank promoter Bob Arum mentioning that Khan is in the running for Pacquiao’s fight in November that it would have Khan chomping at the bit and talking 24/7 about the possible fight with the No.2 fighter in the welterweight division. But instead, Khan has stayed silent about the fight.
Does this mean that Khan is less interested in facing Pacquiao than he is with Floyd Mayweather Jr? I mean, if this was Mayweather saying that he was interested possibly in fighting Khan in November, I think Khan would be busy talking about his chances against him, and how his style of fighting is all wrong for the 37-year-old Mayweather. But then again, Khan believes that he matches up well with Mayweather’s low punch output style.
Perhaps Khan doesn’t feel like he would match up with the 35-year-old Pacquiao, because Khan’s hand speed would be cancelled out by Pacquiao’s, and his work rate would be easily eclipsed by Pacquiao’s high volume attack. Additionally, all the tricks that Khan uses against his opponents such as pulling down on their heads, holding, shoving and head locks probably wouldn’t work that well against Pacquiao. I mean, if Khan tried all those tricks against Pacquiao, I have a feeling he’d be getting drilled 24/7 in the head. I don’t think Khan would be fast enough to grab Pacquiao to keep him from getting his shots off.
Khan might as well be talking up the Pacquiao fight because this might be as close as he gets to a huge money fight unless one opens up for him years from now, if Khan is still around the sport. It’s definitely a good sign that Arum is mentioning Khan’s name as a potential Pacquiao opponent, because it’s not as if there’s any real competition for the fight.
The choices are slim as heck. It’s Ruslan Provodnikov and Juan Manuel Marquez. I don’t think Marquez will take the fight, and a fight between Pacquiao and Provodnikov would be a disaster in terms of pay-per-view buys. At least with Khan, he’d be able to give enough bold predictions to get the PPV numbers over the 500K mark, but probably not more than 800K at best.
If Oscar De La Hoya from Golden Boy Promotions is able to end the cold war with Top Rank in July, which is possibility, we could see Khan as legitimate option for Pacquiao, as long as his adviser Al Haymon doesn’t say no to the fight.
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