Pacquiao says Khan is a possibility if Mayweather fight doesn’t happen

By Boxing News - 01/23/2015 - Comments

pac245By Chris Williams: Manny Pacquiao is prepared to possible face Amir Khan if the Floyd Mayweather Jr fight doesn’t take place. Pacquiao is in London at this time, and he had a meeting with the 28-year-old Khan, who is a friend of his. They spoke of a potential fight between them if Pacquiao doesn’t face Mayweather next on May 2nd.

What this means is that Pacquiao could take Khan away from Mayweather as a potential plan-B option if they don’t face each other.

I’m not sure that Mayweather will be too bothered by the thought of him not getting a fight against Khan, because he already expressed the view that Khan doesn’t have the name value needed for him to fight him. But for Pacquiao, Khan would be a big upgrade to the guys – Brandon Rios, Chris Algieri and Tim Bradley – that his promoter Bob Arum has been feeding him lately.

For Mayweather, Khan isn’t a big fight, but for Pacquiao it’s a big deal for him because he’s no longer being matched up against big names since he was knocked out by Juan Manuel Marquez in 2012.

“Yes, there’s a big possibility, nothing personal, we’re just doing our job in the ring,” Pacquiao said via Sky Sports News. “It’s not difficult for us because we respect each other and we are just doing our job in the ring.”

It’s still possible that the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight will get put together, so none of this Khan business will really mean much by the end of the month.

Mayweather is expected to sign the contract by then. If he doesn’t, then Pacquiao and Khan can go ahead and face each other, while Mayweather looks to land a possible second fight against Miguel Cotto. Mayweather would then get the bigger fight than Pacquiao, because Cotto is a much bigger name in the United States compared to Khan.

As for Mayweather, Pacquiao said “We’re waiting for the answer from them, the signed contract from them, probably next week we will know if the fight [can be] pushed through or not.”

Mayweather will most likely reply on the Pacquiao contract issue by next week. He wants the fight, and he’s been waiting for the Showtime – HBO contract negotiations to conclude. Mayweather has waiting on that to finish up before he signed off.

It’s hard to understand how or why Pacquiao and his promoter Bob Arum have been saying they signed off on their side of the contract when it would be impossible to do so without HBO and Showtime still working it out with their negotiations. It just makes you wonder whether they’re on the level in talking about this.

If Pacquiao fights Khan, he may live to regret it because the British fighter is totally defensive now, and he makes it nearly impossible for his opponents to land anything clean due to his movement, holding and pushing off on his opponents. Pacquiao could very well get out-boxed and find himself losing a tough 12 round decision like he did in his defeat to Tim Bradley.



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