Khan: I’ve pulled out of Pacquiao negotiations

By Boxing News - 10/13/2015 - Comments

khan44By Scott Gilfoid: Amir Khan (31-3, 19 KOs) has given up on trying to negotiate a fight with former eight division world champion Manny Pacquiao (57-6-2, 38 KOs) for May of 2016. Khan says that he thinks that Pacquiao and his management are stalling, and making him wait around for them rather than signing the contract to make the fight happen.

Khan, 28, says he’s not going to just wait around for a fight against Pacquiao like he did with Floyd Mayweather Jr. So because of that, he says he’s pulled out of the negotiations with the Filipino fighter and is moving on to find another opponent for his next fight, which he says will be in December.

Khan wants Danny Garcia, Tim Bradley or Lamont Peterson. He’s hoping that one of those guys will agree to fight him in December. In the case of Garcia and Peterson, Khan would be looking to avenge defeats that he suffered from both of them in the past. Khan says he’s always wanted to avenge those losses, and he hopes he can start in December.

“I have pulled out of the negotiations. I am no longer fighting Manny Pacquiao,” Khan said via thenational.ae. “They know I am a tricky fight for him and they know I will beat him. Or else, why pull out of a fight when there is a lot of money on the table? I don’t really know if Mayweather is fighting Pacquiao again. It is a possible reason for him to stall on signing the contract, but I don’t really know.”

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Poor Khan, looks like he’s not getting another big money fight. What to do? What to do?
It doesn’t make sense for Pacquiao and his 83-year-old promoter Bob Arum to commit to a fight against Khan right now, because there’s still the possibility that Floyd Mayweather Jr. will show interest to take the rematch with Pacquiao for May.

Mayweather usually fights in May on the Mexican holiday Cinco de Mayo, and he fights on the Mexican holiday in September. Pacquiao and Arum would be undermining themselves if they committed to a fight against Khan right now, especially when it could be Pacquiao’s last fight of his career. If this is going to be Pacquiao’s final fight, then they’re going to wait and see if they can get Mayweather.

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If Top Rank can’t get Mayweather for Pacquiao, then they’ll look to get the next big money fight against Juan Manuel Marquez. Pacquiao-Marquez 5 would bring in a lot more money than a fight between Pacquiao and Khan. There’s a large Mexican fan base for Marquez in the U.S, and they would gladly pay to see a fifth fight between the two fighters on HBO PPV. The last time I checked, there isn’t a large British fan base in the United States that is chomping at the bit to pay to see Pacquiao fight Khan. I think ultimately the guy that will wind up facing Pacquiao in May will be Arum’s fighter Terence Crawford. In other words, it’ll be an in-house Top Rank fight where Pacquiao fights one of Arum’s guys, even though it will likely make him a lot less money than what he’d get in facing a more popular fighter like Khan, Keith Thurman, Adrien Broner or Shawn Porter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzoRSaImPWI

“I am not going to wait around for Manny like I did for Mayweather,” Khan said. “I need to fight and if they don’t want to fight then that’s fine, I have other targets. I already had a back-up plan drawn up in case the Pacquiao fight didn’t go to plan. We are looking at a Danny Garcia rematch. I also would like to fight Tim Bradley; that’s another interesting fight.”

I kind of doubt that Khan will be able to get a fight against Bradley; not because it’s a fight that can’t be put together due to Khan’s adviser Al Haymon. I don’t think Arum would agree to this fight because there’s too much potential for Bradley to lose. He doesn’t have the punching power to keep Khan in check, and his hand speed and size aren’t good enough to give Khan problems. I see Bradley as another Devon Alexander type of fighter for Khan. He does well against non-punchers, and Bradley cannot punch hard enough to beat Khan in my view.



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