By William Mackay: WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (23-1, 17 KO’s) says he doesn’t plan on ever fighting Manny Pacquiao, his friend and who trains alongside him often as they share the same trainer Freddie Roach. Khan has an important fight coming up next month on December 11th against World Boxing Association interim champion Marcos Maidana (29-1, 27 KO’s) at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada. This is going to be asking a lot of Khan to be able to win this fight, because he failed the only other time he was put in with a big puncher in the past in a 1st round knockout loss to Breidis Prescott.

Khan has been matched carefully since then and kept away from big punchers until now. Obviously, Roach thinks Khan can win this fight, otherwise he’d likely have him bypass it to keep Khan from getting knocked out. Roach says he would never match one of his fighters with someone that he didn’t think he could beat. In other words, Roach puts his fighters in with opponents that he feels it’s a sure thing to beat. However, Roach has been wrong in the past and when you have a fighter with a weak chin like Khan, it doesn’t matter how much of a better fighter he is.

In an article at SEEN Sports magazine, Khan said “I would never fight Manny as we have the same trainer. It’s just and honor to train and spart with him [Pacquiao] because Manny is one of the best fighters in the world pound-for-pound. I want to unifiy this division, I want to get Maidana out of the way and then fight the winner out of Devon Alexander and Timothy Bradley, which will make me the unified champion at light welterweight. Then I would like to move up a division and fight Floyd Mayweather. Ricky Hatton failed when he fought Mayweather for the pound-for-pound title, but I’m sure I can there and and bring that title back to England.”

Even if Khan did want to fight Pacquiao, chances are high that Khan will get knocked out by Maidana and that would finish off any thoughts of a fight against Pacquiao.

It is interesting that Khan is looking past Maidana and his future fight against the winner of the Alexander-Bradley fight for a bout against Mayweather. I think Khan will never get to that fight without one or two losses before then against Maidana and probably Bradley. If Mayweather doesn’t mind fighting Khan after he’s been beaten a once or twice more, I suppose the fight can be made. It might sell well in the UK, because they could still be interested in seeing this fight. However, the bout will have a lot less meaning in the United States once Khan is beaten by Maidana and/or Bradley. It would be like matching Mayweather up against one of the contenders but not a champion at that point. I can’t see there being a whole lot of interest in that fight other than in the UK. Mayweather would be better off fighting Bradley or Maidana rather than a guy that was beaten by them.