Khan could lose out on Pacquiao fight to Matthysse

By Boxing News - 10/02/2015 - Comments

MATTHYSSE VS. POSTOL FINAL PRESS CONFERENCEBy Scott Gilfoid: After all that yakking that Amir Khan (31-3, 19 KOs) has been doing lately about him being the next opponent for Manny Pacquiao (57-6-2, 38 KOs), it’s starting to look like it won’t be him that will be fighting the Filipino fighter in early 2016.

Golden Boy Promotion CEO Oscar De La Hoya has been talking to Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum about potentially matching Lucas Matthysse (37-3, 34 KOs) against Pacquiao next instead of Khan if Matthysse wins his fight this Saturday night against unbeaten Viktor Postol (27-0, 11 KOs) at the StubHub Center in Carson, California.

If Khan doesn’t get the Pacquiao fight, then he’ll have missed out on four retirement paydays. Khan got passed over by Floyd Mayweather Jr. on three separate occasions. Not it looks like Khan will get passed over by Pacquiao. That leaves only Kell Brook for Khan to get that nice cash out payday.

Arum is reportedly not averse to the Pacquiao-Matthysse fight. In fact, Arum likes that match-up very much because it matches a straight up slugger, the type that Pacquiao has always like to fight, against Pacquiao’s slugging style.

Pacquiao wouldn’t have to chase Matthysse around the ring like he would in a fight against Amir Khan, and he wouldn’t have to deal with all the holding that Khan tends to do.

Khan can hold like crazy when he’s fighting a guy that puts pressure on him the way that Pacquiao would likely be doing. Matthysse, 5’6 ½”, is also the same height as Pacquiao. Khan is two inches taller than Pacquiao at 5’8 ½” with a six inch reach advantage.

You could bet that Khan would be looking to jab and not get hit all night long in a fight that would likely be even more boring than the Pacquiao vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr. fight from last May.

“We feel that Lucas Matthysse must come out aggressive, he must come out strong, and he must impress in order to get the Manny Pacquiao fight,” De La Hoya said.

De La Hoya has ammunition to get a fight for Matthysse against Pacquiao with Top Rank. Just by having Saul “Canelo” Alvarez as his flagship fighter, De La Hoya can use Canelo’s name to waive in front of Arum’s snoot to get him to match Pacquiao against Matthysse rather than Khan.

If De La Hoya were to offer Arum to have one of his fighters face Canelo in the near future in exchange for Pacquiao fighting Matthysse, I can definitely see Arum going for that deal.

Arum comes out way ahead as well by letting Pacquiao fight Matthysse, because a fight between one of his Top Rank fighters and Canelo would be huge. It doesn’t matter if it’s Terence Crawford, Tim Bradley or Brandon Rios.

It would still be very good money for those fighters and Top Rank. It would also increase the popularity of Arum’s fighters. There’s no real gain for Arum in matching Pacquiao against Khan, because the money likely wouldn’t be that much better than a Pacquiao-Matthysse fight, and there’s a better chance that Pacquiao would beat Matthysse.

Like I said; Pacquiao would have to chase Khan around the ring all night long because there’s no way he would stand stationary to fight Pacquiao. Khan would be looking to copy the blueprint that Mayweather used to beat Pacquiao last May by using a ton of movement and a lot of jabs and straight right hands to keep Pacquiao from being able to get in close enough to land his shots.



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