By Scott Gilfoid: Amir Khan (31-3, 19 KOs) says the reason why he’s focusing on trying to get a fight against the former 8 division world champion Manny Pacquiao (57-6-2, 38 KOs) right now rather than taking a fight against IBF welterweight champion Kell “Special K” Brook (35-0, 24 KOs) is because he doesn’t know exactly how much time that the 36-year-old Pacquiao has left in his 20-year career.
Khan wants to make sure that he gets a fight against Pacquiao before he walks away from the sport. Before targeting Pacquiao, Khan tried for ages to get a fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. until he retired from the sport after his recent September 12th win over Andre Berto.
“I think Manny Pacquiao would be the priority because I don’t know how long he has got left in his career, I think he would be the first fight to take,” Khan said via theboltonnews.co.uk.
It makes sense for Khan to be trying to get the fight against Pacquiao because the money will be better for Khan in that fight than it would in a fight against Brook. Further, it’s a better career move for Khan to face Pacquiao, because he’s well known in the United States.
The casual fans know Pacquiao well in America, as he’s one of the two fighters in the sport of boxing. Unfortunately for Brook, he’s totally unknown in American other than by the hardcore fans.
A fight against Brook would only be a popular fight in the UK, and not in America for Khan. For that reason, it makes sense for Khan to be looking to get Pacquiao’s scalp before he retires from the sport.
If Khan misses out on his chance at getting the fight with Pacquiao, then he really will be stuck with just the Brook fight. I don’t see Saul “Canelo” Alvarez or Gennady Golovkin bothering to fight a small and slender fighter like Khan, who is really little more than a pumped up light welterweight rather than being a true welterweight.
“But then you have got Kell Brook, which is a fight I would love to take as well, Virgil (Hunter, trainer) wants it and I want it,” Khan said. “That fight happen a bit later when he has built his reputation up a little more and fought some bigger and better names, but you know there is a fight there one day.”
I think Khan needs to relay that information about Brook building up his name to him and his promoter Eddie Hearn, because they seem to be under the impression that they’re going to be getting a fight against Khan after the Diego Chaves fight or possibly against a Tim Bradley fight in early 2016.
If Khan is expecting Brook to face the likes of Marcos Maidana, Keith Thurman or Shawn Porter, I think he had better not hold his breath waiting for that to happen because I don’t see Brook facing any of those guys. Brook and Hearn are playing it safe in terms of the match-making they’re doing.
“Manny P was probably number two pound-for-pound so by fighting him and beating him, it might get me to be the number one pound for pound fighter and then you get someone like Floyd Mayweather who might say I will come out of retirement and fight him – imagine that,” Khan said.
I don’t think for a second that a Khan win over Pacquiao is going to take him to the No.1 pound-for-pound position in the Ring Magazine rankings. I think if Khan beat someone like Floyd Mayweather Jr., he might get the No.1 pound-for-pound spot, but definitely not Pacquiao. It’s just bad timing on Khan’s part right now to be fighting Pacquiao.
The guy is now 36 and coming off a debilitating injury and a defeat to Mayweather in his last fight in May. Beating Pacquiao now won’t mean as much as it would have meant had he done it six years ago, when Pacquiao was in the zenith of his career and beating guys over and over again by knockout.
If Pacquiao is 100% in early 2016, then it’s going to be extremely difficult for Khan to defeat him. Khan can run around the ring like Chris Algieri did against Pacquiao, and he’s still likely going to wind up taking a beating and get knocked out.
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