(Photo credit: Sumio Yamada) By Scott Gilfoid: Well, it looks like poor Amir Khan (31-3, 19 KOs) has been passed over once again by one of the big names of the sport. Former eight division world champion Manny Pacquiao’s next fight for April 9th is expected to be announced this Friday by his promoter Bob Arum. The name that is being mentioned for Pacquiao is WBO 140lb champion Tim Bradley (33-1-1, 13 KOs) for April 9th in Las Vegas, Nevada.
This means that Khan, 29, has once again missed out on that big money fight that he was hoping to get against Pacquiao. In hindsight, Khan shouldn’t have even bothered waiting on the Pacquiao fight because he never really stood much of a chance to get the fight to begin with.
I mean, let’s be serious here. 1.) Khan isn’t with Top Rank and that alone is probably enough for him not to get the fight. 2.) Khan’s adviser is Al Haymon, who rarely works with Pacquiao’s 83-year-old promoter Bob Arum. 3.) Khan’s ex-trainer Freddie Roach is the same guy that trains Pacquiao, and he’s been talking down the idea of having Khan get the fight. 4.) Khan’s fighting style is too negative for a fighter like Pacquiao.
If you look at Pacquiao’s fights, he likes to face opponents that stand in front of him and trade rather than people that run around the ring, holding, shoving and putting opponents in head-locks like Khan typically does. I never thought Khan was going to get the fight with Pacquiao to begin with.
If I was Khan’s manager, I would have ignored the Pacquiao talk and told them officially right off the bat that I had zero interest in fighting the Filipino fighter. At least by telling Top Rank that I had no interest, I could shut down any distracting talk about the fight, and I would have kept Khan from needlessly getting his hopes up for the fight, which I think he never had a chance of getting in the first place.
Arum turns 84 on Friday, and he’ll be using his birthday to announce the name of Pacquiao’s next opponent. Somebody in Top Rank has already let the cat out of the bag by leaking the 33-year-old Bradley’s name. At least now Khan knows that he doesn’t have the chance to get the fight and can move on officially.
The next question is who will Khan be fighting next. We heard Khan say recently that if he doesn’t get the fight against Pacquiao, then he’ll definitely be fighting IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook in May of 2016. That sounds great and all, but does that mean Khan is going to sit on his backside until the fight? I wouldn’t recommend Khan doing that because he’ll be missing out on too much action by not fighting that long of a time. Khan hasn’t fought since last May, and that was against Chris Algieri.
It’s seven months since Khan last fought and he still doesn’t have a fight scheduled. Unless his adviser Al Haymon is going to have hi fight next month, it could be an entire year by the time Khan does step inside the ring with Brook. I think that’s a pretty stupid thing for Khan to do. If he wants to have a chance at beating Brook, then he should be fighting a lot to get ready for that fight instead of approaching it after a one-year layoff.
“If Manny chooses someone else, I’ll fight Brook. I know I can beat him and it should be at Wembley in late May,” Khan said via thestar.co.uk.
I get the impression that Khan isn’t really fighting to try and win world titles any longer. I think he’s just fighting to get the biggest paydays he can. That’s why he’s been hounding Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Pacquiao for a big money fight. Khan stopped fighting the best three years ago after his back to back losses to Danny Garcia and Lamont Peterson. I think Khan doesn’t really care about the titles at this point in his career. He seems to be totally focused on getting the most money and traveling around the world on vacation. It’s too bad Khan isn’t sticking in the Bay area and training continuously with trainer Virgil Hunter, because that’s what he needs to be doing.
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