By William Mackay: It seems that World Boxing Association light welterweight champion Amir Khan (21-1, 15 KO’s) turned down a golden opportunity to fight Manny Pacquiao, according to The Telegraph. Pacquiao’s promoter, Bob Arum, said that the fight was offered to Khan, but that his family opted not to let Khan take the fight. It didn’t say whether Khan resisted their wishes or not and tried to take the fight anyway.
Apparently, Khan’s family feel that it’s not the right time in Khan’s career for him to take the fight. Khan is only 22-years-old and probably at least five years away from his prime years. The problem is that whether Khan and his family wait two years or five to fight Pacquiao, he probably won’t be around by the time that Khan is ready to fight him.
Khan will then have to be satisfied facing whoever is the best thing. Unless he’s willing to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr., there may not be many other options available for him. Even Mayweather might not be around in two to five years. Knowing Mayweather, if he gets a huge bundle, he may go into another two year retirement.
It’s too bad that Khan didn’t decide to take the fight with Pacquiao, because win or lose, Khan would have been able to get a lot of great experience in a fight with Pacquiao. It would have been a big payday for Khan, and there wouldn’t have been as big a fall out of he were to lose.
That’s probably the best part of all. Nothing would be expected of Khan, since, after all, he was stopped in the 1st round last year by Breidis Prescott and no one in their right minds would be predicting that Khan would beat Pacquiao.
As such, Khan could have picked up a huge payday, valuable experience and not suffered afterwards if he lost in terms of criticism by fans. Khan stands much more of a risk by facing lesser opponents like Dimitry Salita, who Khan will likely face next, and having the risk of losing to him.
If Khan loses to Salita, he might as well kiss goodbye any potential chances for a mega fight for a long time to come. The boxing public can accept one defeat, but two? Salita isn’t a big puncher, so it would not look good if Khan is knocked out by a fighter like him.
Khan needs to keep his eye on Pacquiao in the future and see if he can get a fight with him in a year or two. I don’t know whether Pacquiao will still be around by then, but if he is, this is a fight that Khan has to go after. Khan can’t sit around waiting for Ricky Hatton to finally get off the couch and make a comeback, because he might be waiting around for ever if that’s the case.
The good news for Khan is that Arum is still interested in a fight between Pacquiao and Khan in the future, saying “I can definitely see Amir and Manny meeting in the ring down the line.”
Comments are closed.