Khan thinks he could face Pacquiao in 2016

By Boxing News - 07/31/2015 - Comments

khan670By Scott Gilfoid: Amir Khan (31-3, 19 KOs) says a fight between him and Manny Pacquiao is possible. He thinks that because of Pacquiao’s shoulder injury, he’ll have to wait until 2016 before the fight can happen.

Khan believes that Pacquiao would be open to the idea of fighting in Dubai. That’s a place that Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum is now staging fight cards, and Khan sees that as the perfect venue for them.

“Yeah, maybe Pacquiao; that fight could be massive,” Khan said via Sport360.com. “I’d love to take that fight obviously. I think that fight would be amazing for me. Styles make fights, and that’s another fight that would suit me as well. If that fight comes off, it would probably take place next year in Dubai or something. Dubai would be amazing. It would be a massive fight. There’s a lot of Filipinos in Dubai,” Khan said.

When Khan says that “styles make fights” and says “that’s another fight that would suit me,” I wonder if he actually believes he would beat Pacquiao. I mean, judging by what he’s saying, he seems to believe that he would actually beat Pacquiao. Why else would Khan be saying that his style would suit him if he wasn’t’ trying to say that he would beat Pacquiao. I honestly wouldn’t give Khan any chance of beating Pacquiao.

Even if Pacquiao was down to just one arm like he supposedly was in his loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. last May, I still think he’d get to Khan’s chin and knock him cold. Khan would have to run, hold, shove and pull down on Pacquiao’s head all night long in order for him to go the full 12 rounds. I don’t think his survival tactics would lead to him getting a victory over the Filipino fighter. I guess just getting the fight and the payday, which would be big, would be a victory in itself for Khan.

The question is will Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum willingly match him against a non-Top Rank fighter like Khan? He’s with Al Haymon, and that might get in the way of the two of them facing each other. If not for that, Arum might be interested in matching Pacquiao against Khan. It would certainly be a more interesting fight than him having Pacquiao go through rematches with guys he’s already fought before like Brandon Rios and Tim Bradley.

I don’t think Arum will bother putting Pacquiao in with Khan even though it would bring him more money than matching him against other fighters in his Top Rank stable like Terence Crawford, Rios, Bradley or Jessie Vargas. Khan isn’t a priority. Arum has to keep his top fighters busy and one of the best ways he can do that is to continually mix and match them against Pacquiao.

Khan is kind of out of luck as far as him getting the two big names that he wanted in Mayweather and Pacquiao. Those guys are just out of reach for him, and no matter how much blabbing he does to try and get a fight against them, he strikes out.

My prediction is that there won’t be a Pacquiao or a Mayweather fight in Khan’s future in 2016, or 2017. I also don’t see Haymon putting Khan in with anyone with any kind of punching power other than maybe Kell Brook. That’s a fight where Khan would get over just by taking it because of the big money he’d get. But apart from that, I don’t see Khan being matched against anyone with punching power in 2015 or 2016. When Khan does get back inside the ring this year, I see him being matched against someone like Kevin Bizier or a rematch with Chris Algieri.



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