(Photo credit: Sumio Yamada) By Scott Gilfoid: Thus far the negotiations for the Manny Pacquiao vs. Amir Khan are going well, according to Khan. He’s hoping to be able to confirm who he’ll be fighting next in a couple of weeks from now.
Khan says he’ll fight someone else in December if the fight doesn’t get put together, but he’s really hoping that they can complete the negotiations so that he can face Pacquiao and beat him. Khan says that Pacquiao has been told that he can start training now.
That’s might not be a good thing through, because if Pacquiao rushes back into training, he could tear up his surgically repaired right shoulder.
“I can confirm that my team has been negotiating with Bob Arum; so far everything is going smooth,” Khan said to thenational.com.ae. “The contracts are being negotiated and, if everything is agreed, Manny Pacquiao will be my next opponent.”
Khan shouldn’t get too hopeful about a fight against Pacquiao because he’s already been turned away by Floyd Mayweather Jr. in the past several times. Mayweather didn’t see Khan as being an important enough opponent for him to fight.
Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum might have someone else that he prefers to Khan, because he’s still reportedly taking to the other fighters at the same time that he’s talking to Khan. What we don’t know is which of the fighters are being strung along for nothing.
It could be that Khan is just being led along by the nose so that the fighter that Arum really intends on matching against Pacquiao doesn’t try to ask for too much money. They can’t ask for a lot of cash if they think that Pacquiao has plenty of other options like Khan.
It would be a pity if Khan finds out that he’s been passed up by Arum and Pacquiao for someone like Terence Crawford or Kell Brook. That would be the worst blow for Khan if Brook gets the fight, and he’s the one that sends Pacquiao into retirement instead of Khan.
“I know Manny. He is my friend. We’ve trained and sparred together. He has never ducked or dodged any fighter and I am sure he won’t get scared like Floyd Mayweather and back out,” Khan said.
Oh boy, Khan is talking about Pacquiao being his friend. I’m sure that’s really going to matter to Arum when he makes his decision about who Pacquiao should fight next. I doubt that Arum will give a fig how good of a friend Khan is with Pacquiao.
Arum will make his decision based on the bottom line of how much money that a particular opponent will bring to Pacquiao, and likely how much an opponent will help his promotional team Top Rank. If that’s Khan, then so be it. But if it is’ Crawford, then Khan is out of luck, and will likely be out of luck permanently, because I see Pacquiao fighting someone along the lines of Floyd Mayweather Jr. or perhaps the winner of the Brandon Rios vs. Tim Bradley fight for Pacquiao’s second fight of 2016.
That’s why it’s crucial for Khan to try and get the fight with Pacquiao in February or April of next year. If Khan doesn’t get the fight against Pacquiao then, he’s going to be out of luck for the remainder of the year in my view.
“I have been told that Manny … has been given the ‘all clear’ to start training again by his doctor, which is great news,” Khan said. “Depending on when he and his team feels he could be ready, the fight could be in February or April 2016.
There’s a long ways to go before Khan gets a fight against Pacquiao. Even if the Filipino fighter does agree to a fight against Khan, there’s still a chance that Pacquiao will suffer an injury during training camp and then the fight will either need to be postponed or canceled altogether.
Believe me, if Pacquiao rips his surgically repaired rotator cuff again, he’s going to be out for a long time rehabbing it. Instead of it being nine months like it’ll be this time, I could see it going into 12 months. If Khan just sits around waiting for Pacquiao’s shoulder to heal, he’ll be throwing away another year of his career like he did while trying to get the Mayweather fight.
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