Khan: Arum contacted me about a Pacquiao fight in 2016

By Boxing News - 07/28/2015 - Comments

khan343444By Scott Gilfoid: Amir Khan (31-3, 19 KOs) has seemingly struck out in his efforts to get a fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. for September, but there’s still a chance that Khan could get a big money fight against Manny Pacquiao in 2016. Khan says Pacquiao’s 83-year-old promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank contacted him recently about a fight in 2016 between him and Pacquiao in Dubai.

Arum would like to stage the fight over there. However, Dubai might not work because the Dubai Sports Council doesn’t have any plans for putting that fight in their country in 2016, according to the National. That doesn’t mean that Khan and Pacquiao still couldn’t fight in another venue such as the United States or the UK.

“Bob Arum has contacted my team to fight Manny Pacquiao around March or April in Dubai. Let’s see how that develops,” Khan said via thenational.ae. “Since Floyd is running scared, I want Pacquiao in 2016 when he is back from his injury; 2016 will be Amir Khan’s year; you will see me in two of the biggest fights in that year.”

I think Khan is dreaming if he really thinks that he’s going to get the fight against Pacquiao. It’s just not going to happen. Khan is with Al Haymon, and he’s probably not going to give the green light to Khan for the Pacquiao fight.

While Arum supposedly contacted Khan for a fight against Pacquiao, I seriously doubt that Arum will let that fight take place. He’s got to know by now that Pacquiao is down to his last one or two fights remaining in his career, and I believe Arum will look to use those two fights by having Pacquiao fight one of his Top Rank fighters like Terence Crawford rather than Khan. It would be an in house fight, and it would help increase the value of Crawford for Arum’s Top Rank stable in the future. The other fight would be a rematch against Floyd Mayweather Jr. It doesn’t pay off for Arum to match Pacquiao against Khan because it wouldn’t be a huge fight like Mayweather-Pacquiao, and it wouldn’t help Arum’s Top Rank company like a Pacquiao-Crawford fight would. Arum needs to make the Pacquiao vs. Crawford fight before Pacquiao retires so that Crawford can become a more valuable asset for him in the future.

The other big fight that Khan wants in 2016 is a fight against IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook if he and his promoter Eddie Hearn will follow his directions to build up the fight between them more by Brook fighting someone good. Brook has arguably only fought one good opponent in his entire career in Shawn Porter, who Brook beat by clinching him constantly for 12 rounds to keep him from being able to get his shots off. It still wound up as a very, very close fight that many boxing fans, including this writer, felt that Porter won.

I think Khan is better off biting the bullet and taking the Brook fight instead of putting his career on hold waiting for fights against the likes of Mayweather and Pacquiao. I feel that Khan has done that in the case of Mayweather, and he’s wasted time. It’s better to shut them out and focus on the one fight he can get against Brook.

I wouldn’t wait for Hearn to all of a sudden start matching Brook against good fighters, because I can’t see that happening either. Khan will grow old and gray waiting for Hearn to start matching Brook against dangerous fighters because it’s not going to happen. Look at the guys that Hearn has been matching against Brook since he took over his as his promoter years ago. It follows a clear pattern of safe match making against guys like Frankie Gavin, Alvaro Robles, Vyacyheslav Senchenko, Matthew Hatton, and Jo Jo Dan. There are no risks with Brook’s fights. The only risky fight was against Porter, and Brook clinched all night to get a win in that fight. He should have been docked major points for his clinching, but the elderly referee that worked the fight let Brook get away with nonstop clinching.

There’s now talk of Brook fighting 40-year-old Leonard Bundu next after his negotiations with Brandon Rios failed to pan out due to Brook’s insistence of a rematch clause.



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