By Scott Gilfoid: Amir Khan has offered Manny Pacquiao to fight him in Qatar for his next fight in April of next year, and it’s being considered, according to Pacquiao’s adviser Michael Koncz.
Pacquiao hasn’t yet made up his mind about who he’ll be fighting. His promoter Bob Arum has offered two of his Top Rank fighters Tim Bradley and Terence Crawford as possibilities for Pacquiao to choose from, but it’s still unknown if he’ll help out his old promoter by selecting one of those guys.
Arum is interested in having Pacquiao’s next fight take place in Las Vegas, Nevada, but it’s not known if Pacquiao will agree to that either.
“We’ll see if fighting there would be better financially for us,” said Koncz to the mb.com.ph.
If Khan doesn’t get the fight against Pacquiao then he’s going to need to be satisfied with facing IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook in May or June of 2016 in a fight that would take place in the UK. That’s not a fight that would sell in the U.S, because neither guy would likely be able to attract fans to sellout one of the venues.
Pacquiao isn’t going to make the kind of big money he made in his last fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. if he faces Khan. Fighting in Qatar would make it difficult for boxing fans from the U.S to see the fight because it would cost a lot of money to travel there. The fan turnout would need to be locally rather than from outside of the Qatar area.
“These things tend to move slow,” Khan’s publicist Amir Rashid said to the Manila Bulletin. “Hopefully we get the Pacquiao fight as many want to see it but ball is in his court.”
This would be a real surprise if Pacquiao were to face Khan because many fans feel that Pacquiao will look to please his old promoter Arum by choosing to face Bradley or Crawford in order to help bring more money to Arum’s Top Rank company and increase the popularity of one of those fighters.
Arum even mentioned himself that he prefers that Pacquiao not select Khan because he doesn’t promote him. However, Pacquiao recently fought Mayweather and Arum didn’t promote him either. The negotiations were tough, but the fight was made Pacquiao got a career high payday out of the fight.
If Pacquiao wants the most money for his next fight then it might be better for him to look in another direction than Khan, Crawford or Bradley. The superior money would come from other places like a rematch with Mayweather or a fight against one of the larger fighters from the middleweight division. If Pacquiao is going to lose his final fight then he should get paid a lot of money.
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