By Dan Ambrose: Amir Khan (31-4, 19 KOs) surprised many people this past week when he said he wants to fight Manny Pacquiao. Khan sees the 37-year-old Pacquiao as being at the top of his list for guys he wants to fight.
It would have been a realistic choice for Khan if he hadn’t been knocked out cold by WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez last Saturday night in the 6th round in their fight on HBO pay-per-view at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach thinks Khan might have been feeling the aftereffects from his knockout when he said he wants to fight Pacquiao. As far as Roach is concerned, the last guy that Khan needs to be fighting right now is Pacquiao.
Roach says Khan needs to take some time off and recover from his knockout before he makes a decision on his next opponent.
“Why is he at the top of the list,” said Roach to Fighthype about Pacquiao being at the top of Khan’s list for who he wants for his next fight. “He just got knocked out cold. He had better take some time off and readjust. I think maybe he said that because of the knockout because he needs some time off. That was a devastating blow. I’m really happy that he’s okay because I don’t want anyone to get hurt in the ring of course. That was a big shot and the way his head snapped on the canvas. I’m glad he came out of it okay. I was worried about him. I’m glad he came out of it okay. If him and Pacquiao decided to fight sometime down the line, that’s fine but…”
Khan seems to be only interested in taking on the biggest names at this point in his career, and that’s fine. The only problem is that when you get knocked out in the way that the 29-year-old Khan did by Canelo, it makes you one of the undesirables in terms of opposition. The last thing that top fighters like Pacquiao needs is to be facing Khan right now, because he would be seen as little more than a desperate cherry picker.
Khan vs. Canelo brought in slightly less than 600,000 PPV buys on HBO. Those are pretty good numbers considering the fight was a mismatch between a huge middleweight, who for some crazy reason still calls himself a 154lb fighter, and a welterweight with a history of having a fragile chin.
With Khan being knocked out by a right hand from Canelo, Pacquiao wouldn’t be able to cash if he were to come out of retirement to fight Khan. That’s a fight that the fans would see as a mismatch, and rightly so. Khan has been knocked out almost every time he’s stepped up a level. A fight against Pacquiao could be dangerous for Khan given the severity of his knockout loss to Canelo.
A good fight for Khan right now would be a rematch against the light hitting Chris Algieri or a rematch against Paulie Malignaggi. Khan has beaten both guys in the past, and both of them were knocked out recently. Khan needs a light hitter that isn’t any threat to putting a dent on chin.
Someone like Robert Guerrero would be good because he lost his last fight to Danny Garcia and he can’t punch at the welterweight level. Victor Ortiz would be a good option too, but he can punch and he might be too dangerous for Khan after how he was knocked out. A rematch against 38-year-old Zab Judah would be a good fight for Khan as well. It would be nice if Khan could show that he can beat Judah without holding and hitting like he did in his victory over him five years ago.
Khan’s manager Al Haymon and trainer Virgil Hunter will likely be making the decision in who Khan faces next. They need a well-known fighter that doesn’t have a lot of power. Khan can forget about Pacquiao or Floyd Mayweather Jr. Those fights are going to happen. Hopefully, Khan doesn’t start talking about wanting to fight Gennady Golovkin because that would be really going in the wrong direction. I’m not sure how Haymon felt about Khan fighting Canelo. It’s hard to imagine him being on board with that fight because it was trouble the moment the fight was signed.