By Dave Lahr: With Manny Pacquiao spinning his wheels talking about how he’s willing to take the blood tests up until 14 days before a fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr., and not willing to take the random blood tests that Mayweather wants, why doesn’t Pacquiao fight his fellow stable mate and friend WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (23-1, 17 KO’s) instead? If Pacquiao wanted to put the pressure on Mayweather, that would be the way to do it by fighting and beating the stuffing out of Khan rather than talking in the media about how Mayweather isn’t willing to fight him.

Mayweather reversed his luck by taking on beating Shane Mosley recently, and has received a lot of respect from boxing fans in his excellent performance. If Pacquiao wants to reverse tables on Mayweather, he needs to fight someone like Khan and beat him impressively. That will get Mayweather to step up to the plate faster than calling him out or trying to shame him into the fight by talking about the blood testing issues. I think it’s a waste of time for Pacquiao to fight Miguel Cotto again and guys like Antonio Margarito and Yuri Foreman probably won’t do much either, other than making Top Rank promoter Bob Arum happy.

But the fight that would give Pacquiao a shot in the arm is by fighting Khan. That would be a big fight in the United States, if Khan’s people would let him, and give Pacquiao a ton of attention with the media. Sooner or later, Mayweather is going to make a move on Khan himself. It would be best to beat him to the punch and line up a fight with Khan first. However, Pacquiao and Arum will have to give the impression that this is Pacquiao’s last fight of his career because Golden Boy Promotions, the promoter for Khan, might not want to put Khan in with Pacquiao at this early a point in his career.

Khan has been talking about wanting to fight Pacquiao and Mayweather a year from now and this would be too early. But if they think this is Pacquiao’s last fight, I can see Golden Boy granting permission for Khan to fight Pacquiao. Naturally, Khan would be totally destroyed in the fight unless Pacquiao took it easy on him and gave him some mercy rounds. But, if Pacquiao wants to really fight Mayweather and get him in the ring, fighting Khan is clearly the way to do it. He won’t do it by beating Margarito, who was already beaten by Shane Mosley, Mayweather’s latest victim. And Cotto has lost two out of his last four fights. That won’t mean much if Pacquiao fights and beats him again.