Khan says there’s a 75% chance of him getting Pacquiao fight

By Boxing News - 10/10/2015 - Comments

khan44By Scott Gilfoid: Amir Khan (31-3, 19 KOs) is feeling really confident that he’ll be the one getting picked by Manny Pacquiao (57-6-2, 38 KOs) and his promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank for Pacquiao’s next fight in early 2016.

In fact, Khan is so confident that he’ll be getting the fight against Pacquiao that he’s now saying he’s got a 75% chance of getting it. Obviously, Khan knows things that we don’t in terms of the negotiations that are taking place between his team and Pacquiao’s promoter Arum.

You have to kind of give Khan the benefit of the doubt when he speaks because he’s been so wrong before in the past in thinking he’d get a fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr, who recently retired after fighting Berto rather than facing Khan to get him a cash out/retirement payday so that he wouldn’t have to ever fight anymore.

“I think 75 per cent,” he told AFP via Yahoo Sports. “I think this could happen. Pacquiao is a fight I would like to have because styles makes fights. I think it can happen. It’s all about just doing the little things, contracts and stuff.”

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Well, I have serious doubts that a Pacquiao-Khan fight will take place, because Pacquiao is talking like this will be his last fight of his career. He’s got an election in May for a senate seat in the Philippines.

Pacquiao will be focusing entirely his political career if he wins that senate seat because he wants to become the president of the Philippines one of these days. What this means is that if Pacquiao is down to his last fight of his career, it’s almost a sure thing that Arum will choose to stick him in with one of his Top Rank fighters like Terence Crawford, Brandon Rios or Tim Bradley.

If Arum matches Pacquiao against one of his stable fighters, then he doesn’t need to promote with an outside fighter from another promotional company, and he doesn’t have to share the money with them. It would a strictly Top Rank venture. If Pacquiao really is fighting only once more, then no way is Khan going to get the fight.

I don’t see that happening. If Arum can convince Pacquiao to fight twice in 2016, then maybe he might fight Khan in early 2016. But even if Pacquiao fights twice in 2016, I see Arum choosing to have Pacquiao twice fight one of his Top Rank stable fighters because he can make good money by matching Pacquiao against his own fighters. Why would Arum match Pacquiao against Khan when he can keep it in house by matching him against Crawford, Bradley or Rios?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzoRSaImPWI

“Manny Pacquiao after Floyd Mayweather is the best fighter and I want to fight the best fighters,” Khan said.

I don’t think Pacquiao is the best fighter at Mayweather. I think Pacquiao is the best fighter to give Khan a cash out fight. He’s definitely that. Pacquiao brings the most money for Khan, maybe. It should bring Khan the most money if Arum is willing to give him a good purse split of the loot, but I have my doubts whether he’ll be willing to do that.

Khan would likely make more money fighting Kell Brook because he could get a good split of the money, perhaps 50-50. No way will Khan get a 50-50 split for the money for a fight against Pacquiao. I would be surprised if Khan can even get an 80-20 split. I think it would be more like Khan being offered a take it or leave it 85-15 split.

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Juan Manuel Marquez received a 76-24 split in 2012, but he brought a lot to the table because of his ability to bring in a lot of Mexican boxing fans to purchase the fight in the United States on HBO PPV.

Khan doesn’t have the ability. He can’t pull in a ton of fans because he doesn’t have a huge built in fan base of British boxing fans in the U.S. As such, I see Khan maybe getting an 85-15 split. With a split that low, I think Khan is better off facing Brook in the UK, because he can make more money against him. If Khan is willing to take the small money to fight Pacquiao for the chance of beating him and becoming more popular because of it, then I guess it’s worth it to take the smaller payday.



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