Khan: Pacquiao may be next

By Boxing News - 06/20/2014 - Comments

khan67883By Chris Williams: Amir Khan (29-3, 19 KO’s) says that he could be fighting Manny Pacquiao next rather than Floyd Mayweather Jr. Khan says his adviser Al Haymon is working on his next fight, and he has confidence that he’ll get him the fight that he wants. Khan, as usual, is also saying he’d like to get Mayweather next year when he fights in May.

Khan would like to fight 40-year-old Juan Manuel Marquez, even though he would have nothing to offer Marquez in terms of world titles. It’s not likely that Marquez will be enticed by Khan’s WBC Silver welterweight strap that he recently captured in beating former WBA welterweight champion Luis Collazo last May.

“There are talks about Manny Pacquiao happening in the future – may be next. So I have left my team, Al Hayman and my team Khan Promotions to do everything,” Khan said to Sky Ringside. “I am looking at the likes of Marquez and Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather – they are the big names and that is where I belong fighting the top guys.”

Khan is lumping himself in with the big guys now, but he’s going to need a fight against one of them to prove that he belongs with them because right now he’s failed in his two attempts at beating the big guys when he fought Danny Garcia and Lamont Peterson.

I don’t k now about you, but I think Khan would give Pacquiao all kinds of problems if that fight gets made for November. In their sparring that took place several years ago, when Khan was fighting out of the Wildcard Gym in Los Angeles, California with trainer Freddie Roach, Khan seemed to handle Pacquiao pretty well during the taped sparring session. It was one-sided with Khan beating Pacquiao pretty much the same way he beat Collazo. Of course, it’s just sparring and you can’t really tell for sure what would happen in a real life fight with smaller gloves on and no head gear, but you can say that Khan looked like the better fighter by far than Pacquiao during that sparring session.

Khan is going to need the Pacquiao fight in order to try and rip the baton from his hands in order to make his own name for himself in the sport. If Khan has to wait until Pacquiao and Mayweather retires, he might not ever make it to the next level to become a superstar in his own right. Khan needs a partially toothless old lion that he can rip apart to make his own name the way that Pacquiao made his name off of an old Oscar De La Hoya back in 2008 after Mayweather had already beaten him up a year before. Pacquiao will have to be Khan’s old lion for him to move to the next level where he’s seen as a pay-per-view superstar.



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