Pacquiao is too big and strong for Khan, says Roach

By Boxing News - 09/21/2015 - Comments

roach467By Scott Gilfoid: Manny Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum showed trainer Freddie Roach three names that he’s considering for Pacquiao’s next fight in early 2016. Roach thinks the 5’6” Pacquiao would ultimately be too big and too strong for the taller 5’8” Khan. I think Khan is actually the heavier of the two fighters, and obviously the taller.

Roach says he has no problems with any of them. Amir Khan is one of the names that Arum is considering for the fight. Roach thinks that Khan is a good choice for Pacquiao, and he has no problems with the fight taking place in the UK, Khan’s home country.

Roach wants to go to the place where the most amounts of tickets can be sold. Khan has talked in the past of wanting to fight Pacquiao at Wembley Stadium in London, UK. The stadium fits 80,000 fans, and he thinks they could sell out the arena. If Arum makes the fight, it would be the largest audience for one of Pacquiao’s fights,

“It’s a good fight. He’s [Khan] a good athlete and so forth,” Roach said to Fighthype. “Manny’s a little bit too big and strong for him, and a better puncher. They boxed a bit in the ring. Because Manny knocked him down twice really doesn’t matter to me, but we’ll fight in his back yard. He can’t beat Manny. That’s all there is to it. I have no problem with the fight being in the UK. It’s a nice place. Wherever sells the most tickets, that’s where I want to go,” Roach said.

It might not matter if Pacquiao is the stronger fighter and the bigger puncher. Khan will be running around the ring all night long to keep from getting hit by Pacqiuiao. But it depends on which Pacquiao we see in this fight. If the Pacquiao that beat Chris Algieri shows up against Khan, then it’ll be an easy fight for Pacquiao.

He’ll likely knock Khan down a half dozen times in the process of scoring a knockout. It would be the first knockout for Pacquiao since his 12th round stoppage win over Miguel Cotto in 2009. I don’t know if Khan could stand up to getting nailed by Pacquiao, even if it’s only a rare shot.

I’d be surprised if Arum agrees to let the fight take place in the UK though. Arum will be concerned about the U.S market in terms of pay-per-view numbers. If he believes that he’ll be losing half of the U.S PPV buys by staging the fight in the UK, then he won’t do it.

I don’t think the large 80,000 gate would make up for the lost pay-per-view buys if they were to stage the fight in the UK. Besides that, I don’t think Arum would be too keen at the idea of letting Khan have the hometown advantage over Pacquiao.

You have to realize that Pacquiao is a very important fighter for Arum. If Pacquiao loses for a second time in a row, boxing fans might not be eager to see Pacquiao fight in the second half of 2016. Arum would be potentially losing money if Pacquiao gets beaten by Khan.



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