By William Mackay: Amir Khan’s trainer Freddie Roach seems to be in a big hurry to put Khan in with boxing’s #1 cash cow Manny Pacquiao. This is a match-up that previously seemed impossible because of the close friendship between Pacquiao and Khan. Both fighters ruled out any possibility of a future fight more than one in the past. Besides their friendship getting in the way of the fight there was also the problem of both fighters sharing the same trainer Roach. It’s hard to see a fight between Khan and Pacquiao as being on the level. This might end up being a glorified sparring session between friends.

But it looks like Roach is seeing things a different way and is very eager to match the two fighters up with each other. Why Roach is in such a hurry for them to fight is the real mystery. Khan isn’t even close to being a big star in the U.S. In terms of popularity right now, Khan is probably a lot less popular and known in the U.S than Marcos Maidana. Also, Khan certainly didn’t impress American boxing fans with his last performance last weekend against Paul McCloskey. That was a dreadful performance by Khan, and it paled in comparison to Victor Ortiz, who defeated WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto on the same night.

Speaking with thesun.co.uk, Roach said “I want Amir to unify the light welterweight division by taking on WBC and WBO champ Timothy Bradley. Then the winner should go up to 147 and take on Manny Pacquiao.”

Why is Roach in such a hurry for Khan to fight Pacquiao? If Roach really wanted to make a fight between Khan and Pacquiao a huge fight he should at least wait until Khan is more established in the U.S. before rushing a fight with Pacquiao. The way Roach is pushing for this fight so quickly it makes it seem as if he’s worried that Khan might get beaten by someone and the chance for the cash out fight would be lost.

If Khan is really all that Roach says he is then Roach should be comfortable with waiting for Khan to move up and beat some of the big names at welterweight like Victor Ortiz, Andre Berto, Mike Jones and Shane Mosley. Of course, if Roach has doubts that Khan can do this then I can understand why he would be in such a big rush to get Khan in with Pacquiao for a cash out fight before one of the welterweights beats him and exposes his chin problem.