Warren: Pacquiao-Khan a fight for the future; Guerrero Wants Martinez – News

By Boxing News - 09/12/2009 - Comments

By William Mackay: Frank Warren, the promoter for WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan, confirmed that he had a conversation with Manny Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum not long ago about a fight between Khan and Pacquiao. However, Warren wasn’t interested in having the fight take place at this time, wanting the 22-year-old Khan to get more experience before fighting Pacquiao.

Warren says “He [Khan] needs a few more before he’s ready for Pacquiao.” Hopefully, Pacquiao is still around by the time that Khan is ready to be put in with a fighter like Pacquiao, because the Filipino fighter is about to take on Miguel Cotto in November and after that – if Pacquiao is successful against Miguel – Pacquiao will likely face Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2010. Pacquiao says he doesn’t want to fight much longer because he wants to retire and go back home and run for the president of the Philippines.

Warren is also concerned about the training situation for Khan. As of now, Freddie Roach trains both Khan and Pacquiao. This obviously would create a problem if Khan were to face Pacquiao, because Roach would have to decide which fighter to work with. Warren surmises that Roach will stick with Pacquiao, which he feels would be putting Khan at a significant disadvantage in this fight because he would have to go out and get another trainer.

Manny Steward was mentioned as an alternative for Roach, but Warren doesn’t like that idea, seeing it as problem. Another problem that Warren failed to mention is that Roach, as the trainer of Khan, would have intimate knowledge of all of Khan’s weaknesses and strengths, and would be able to easily put together a perfect game plan to beat Khan.

In effect, Khan would be walking into a very tough situation where he would be facing not only a fighter with much more big fight experience, but also one that would know exactly what to do to beat him.

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Guerrero Interested in fighting Martinez for title Unification bout

International Boxing Federation super featherweight champion Robert Guerrero (25-1-1, 17 KOs) is interested in fighting a unification bout against undefeated WBO super featherweight champion Roman Martinez (22-0-1, 13 KO’s) in the future. It hinges, though, on the 26-year-old Martinez defeating this Saturday night’s opponent Feider Viloria, whom he will be fighting in Puerto Rico.

Guerrero, 26, defeated champion Malcolm Klassen by a 12 round unanimous decision on August 22nd to capture the IBF super featherweight title. Guerrero fought well, throwing many punches per round and making a number of adjustments to keep Klassen off balance and unable to get into the fight. Guerrero looked much better in this fight than he did in his bout in March 2009 against Daud Cino Yordan, a fast and powerful fighter that Guerrero looked very uncomfortable with until the fight was stopped in the 2nd round due to a cut over Guerrero’s left eyebrow.

Martinez defeated Nicky Cook by a 4th round stoppage in March to claim the WBO super featherweight title. Martinez isn’t as powerful as Guerrero, and is more of a technician similar in many ways to Juan Manuel Lopez.

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Vivian Harris Receives Medical Clearance to Start training

Former World Boxing Association light welterweight champion Vivian Harris (29-3-1, 19 KO’s) has received medical clearance to start training again. Harris collapsed in his corner after clashing heads against Noe Bolanos in a fight on August 14th.

Harris, 31, had to be taken out of the ring on a stretcher and taken to the hospital for examinations. Nothing serious was found and he was allowed to return home. Harris doesn’t have an opponent for his next fight and there’s no date for when he will be returning to the ring at this time.



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