By Chris Williams: If Manny Pacquiao can’t get a fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr for May 2nd, Amir Khan could be the plan-B option for the Filipino superstar.
Khan, 28, has offered the 36-year-old Pacquiao a fight against him that he’d like to stage either in Europe or the United Arab Emirates, according to Tempo. It would be up to Pacquiao and his promoter Bob Arum if they’d be interested in taking that fight.
Khan would be a huge upgrade over one of Arum’s Top Rank stable fighters like Jessie Vargas, who has been rumored to be the plan-B option Arum has for Pacquiao if the Mayweather fight doesn’t pan out.
Having the fight in UAE could create time zone problems, and it’s unclear whether Arum would be willing to deal with that. The taxes would likely be far less for Pacquiao than if the fight were to be staged in the United States or the UK.
Arum might like that part about having the fight staged in the UAE. But Pacquiao could likely find himself outnumbered by the Khan supporters, and Arum might not be too keen on having Pacquiao’s fans’ voices drowned out by Khan’s many supporters.
“I’ve told my promoter Oscar De La Hoya and my team to organize a fight in Dubai,” Khan said via The National newspaper via sports.tempo.com.ph. “I know Floyd won’t fight outside of Las Vegas, so I want the Pacquiao fight in Dubai. It’s the perfect place to fight: huge Filipino, Pakistani and British communities here and it will be big.”
Khan would be better off saying that he’d be willing to fight Pacquiao wherever he’d like the fight. By Khan telling De La Hoya to go get Pacquiao for a fight in the UAE or in Europe, it might be construed as Khan trying to call the shots and act like he’d the A-side in the deal when he’s clearly the B-side.
Khan would be a far better choice for Pacquiao than anyone that Arum could dig up from his Top Rank stable, but given that he’s not one of Arum’s fighters, it might be enough for the fight not to happen. It wouldn’t be an in house fight for Arum, and I don’t know that he’d be interested in making a fight like that happen.
If Khan has his heart set out on fighting in the UAE, he’s probably going to wind up facing a mere contender like Victor Ortiz or Andre Berto rather than Pacquiao. Trying to lure Pacquiao to fight in a Khan-friendly place, whether the UAE or the UK, might be a nonstarter in terms of the negotiations.
Comments are closed.