Pacquiao beats Khan, says Arum

By Boxing News - 08/13/2015 - Comments

pacmay2By Scott Gilfoid: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum says he still thinks his fighter Manny Pacquiao would be too good for Amir Khan (31-3, 19 KOs) if the two of them were to fight right now. Arum believes that Pacquiao’s punching power would be the undoing for Khan. However, Arum says you never know what could happen in a fight between Pacquiao and Khan, because Pacquiao is getting up there in age at 36 and about to turn 37 in December.

Arum interested in putting the Pacquiao-Khan fight together in 2016 if Pacquiao is able to come back from his torn shoulder injury he suffered recently. Arum thinks it would be a good fight between those two fighters.

“It’s a good fight,” Arum said via the telegraph.co.uk. “Manny beats him, though, in my opinion. Manny is getting up in age, so you never know what’s going to happen. But I think he hits too hard for Khan.”

Well, Khan is already talking about how he would copy the blueprint that Mayweather created in order to keep from getting hit by Pacquiao. It’s possible that Khan could get a win over Pacquiao if he makes him look like the same clueless fighter that Mayweather did last May in their “Fight of the Century” in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Khan says he would like to move around and fight in a slick manner. The only time Pacquiao was able to do anything against Mayweather was when he was standing directly in front of him with his back against the ropes. Khan never fights off the ropes like Mayweather, so the only way Pacquiao can get in his shots against him is in the center of the ring.

“There’s no question he’ll [Pacquiao] fight again,” Arum said. “Pacquiao is not ducking Khan. Pacquiao will fight him. I don’t know if Khan will fight Pacquiao, but it’s available.”

Pacquiao might not officially duck Khan, but if Arum schedules him ahead against some of his Top Rank fighters like Terence Crawford, Brandon Rios or Tim Bradley over and over again for the next years, I don’t think Khan is going to have much of a chance to get a fight against Pacquiao. Arum has already said that he wants to match Pacquiao against Crawford.

It is a fight that helps Arum’s bottom line by increasing the popularity of Crawford. It’s in Arum’s best interest to make that fight before Pacquiao’s hangs up the gloves permanently and Arum loses his chance to match him against Crawford in a star-making move.

The question would be whether Arum likes the Pacquiao-Khan fight enough to make that instead of putting Crawford, Rios or Bradley in with Pacquiao. I have a feeling that when it’s all said and done, Khan will take a back seat to Arum’s Top Rank stable fighters. One of them will get the fight while Khan will get ignored and passed over like he’s had happen to him for the past two years with Floyd Mayweather Jr. choosing different guys to fight instead of him.

I believe Pacquiao will fight again in 2016. I don’t know how effective he’ll be when he does return to the ring. He might come back with only the use of one arm if he’s unable to regain the strength in his surgically repaired right arm. Pacquiao had surgery last May on his rotator cuff to repair a tear. That’s a tricky injury to come back from.

While some fighters are able to come back close to what they were previous, many other athletes are never the same. But even if Pacquiao fights with just one arm, I think he’ll resume his career and be ready to fight whoever Arum wants him to. If that’s Khan then so be it. Pacquiao will dutifully take the fight and look to KO Khan just like Danny Garcia and Breidis Prescott did in the past.

“Amir Khan has been begging Mayweather for a fight and now he can get a major fight,” Arum said. “I’m not a hard guy to deal with. I’m not going to mess them around.”

If Arum wants to match Pacquiao against Khan, then he won’t be hard to deal with. But it’s still going to be a complicated fight to put together because Arum would have to negotiate with Khan’s adviser Al Haymon, and that would be really tricky.



Comments are closed.