Khan has good chance of beating Pacquiao, says Hunter

By Boxing News - 12/25/2014 - Comments

khan5899By Chris Williams: Amir Khan’s trainer Virgil Hunter believes that the 28-year-old Khan has a good chance of beating WBO 147lb champ Manny Pacquiao (57-5-2, 38 KOs) if the two fighters mix it up in 2015. Hunter believes that Floyd Mayweather Jr would be a really tough fight for Khan, but he thinks Pacquiao is a winnable fight for him.

Khan has talks in the past about having done very well against Pacquiao in sparring sessions when the two fighters were trained by Freddie Roach. In looking at some of the video from one of the sparing sessions, Khan did appear to dominate Pacquiao. Khan used his size, hand speed and combinations to give Pacquiao fits.

Of course, that sparring session was quite a long time ago, and it’s hard to know whether Khan could do the same thing now.

“I would have to say that I would give Khan more than a better chance at winning that fight,” Hunter said via RingTV.com. “My personality is not to predict but I’m confident that he [Khan] would win that fight.”

With Pacquiao going through a five year dry spell where he’s failed to score a knockout since 2009, it would probably mean that Pacquiao would need to go the full 12 round distance with Khan. If it’s a 12 round fight then you have to give Khan the nod because he’s got the better boxing skills than Pacquiao, and he’s bigger, faster and more elusive.

Pacquiao would have huge problems trying to win rounds against a guy like Khan, especially if Khan was fighting off his back foot like he did in his last fight against Devon Alexander. Khan is difficult to hit cleanly when he’s fighting like that, and Pacquiao’s lack of size would cause him problems. Pacquiao’s short reach would cause him to get hit a lot without him having the ability to land anything of substance.

With the careful match-making that Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum has done with him, I don’t see him breaking that pattern to let him fight someone like Khan. Arum isn’t going to make that fight.

I think he would either refuse it outright or possibly mention something bizarre like a stadium needing to be built in order for the fight to take place. In other words, Khan wouldn’t get the fight against Pacquiao, and we’ll likely see Pacquiao get matched up next with one of Arum’s Top Rank stable fighters like Jessie Vargas if they can’t make a deal with Floyd Mayweather Jr.



Comments are closed.