By Scott Gilfoid: Amir Khan is looking past his next opponent Samuel Vargas for a bigger affair against WBA ‘regular’ welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao for November or December in the UK. Khan, 31, wants Pacquiao (60-7-2, 39 KOs) to come over to the UK to face him in a stadium.
Pacquiao, 39, might not be receptive to that idea, because the money would likely be less than what he can get if he fights in Malaysia or one of the other countries with a strong tourism industry. For Pacquiao to fight Khan in the UK, it might take a lot of sacrificing from the British fighter in terms of taking a tiny purse in order for Pacman to agree to the fight. In other words, Pacquiao isn’t going to take the fight with Khan for chump change. He’s going to want a lot of money to come to the UK to fight Khan in a stadium. Khan’s promoter Eddie Hearn is skeptical about Pacquiao being willing to fight him in the UK.
“A Manny Pacquiao fight would be massive, anywhere in the world. He is a good fighter…he’s a huge name in boxing and I am sure if he came to the UK, the UK fans would want to come and see him,” Khan said to skysports.com.
Of course, British boxing fans would flock in high numbers to see Khan fight Pacquiao in the UK. If nothing else, the fans would want to come see the 39-year-old Pacquiao fight just so they can say they saw him fight during their lifetimes. Pacquiao is like the Babe Ruth of boxing, so it makes sense that the UK fans would want to come see Khan fight him. However, Khan can still make more money fighting fellow Brit Kell Brook in November or December. That’s the fight that Hearn is itching to make at the end of the year. The casual British fans want to see Khan and Brook face each other in 2018, even though both of them are clearly past their best and not a threat to the best fighters in their respective divisions. You can’t throw Brook inside the ring with a top junior middleweight like Jermell Charlo or Jarrett Hurd and expect him not to be torn apart by both of them. Brook would likely fall apart piece by piece if he were to fight Charlo and Hurd. The same applies to Khan at welterweight. If he had to face guys like Errol Spence Jr., Terence Crawford, Keith Thurman, Danny Garcia or Shawn Porter, it wouldn’t be pretty. You can add Pacquiao’s name with those guys. Pacquiao is clearly past his best, but he still has more than enough left to beat Khan.
Paccquiao looked like he stepped out of a time machine last July in his fight against WBA World welterweight champion Lucas Martin Matthysse at the Axiata arena in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Not only was Pacquiao looking incredibly muscular like he used to look 10 years ago in 2009, but he was also seemingly punching with more power than he had since then. The muscles and power were both back for Pacquiao, who looked like he had suddenly found the Fountain of Youth. Pacquiao’s punching power was devastating. It was all Matthysse could do in taking the shots from the rejuvenated Pacquiao. If Pacquiao is able to maintain the muscles and power that he added for his last fight against Matthysse, then Khan will have zero chance of beating him. Pacquiao is a different type of fighter when he’s packing that type of power. However, it’s still HIGHLY unlikely that Pacquiao will agree to fight Khan in the UK, period. If a fight between the two of them is going to take place, it’s almost surely going to take place in Malaysia or Dubai.
“I want to become a world champion again and to win that off someone like Manny Pacquiao would be amazing,” Khan said.
Well, Pacquiao would give Khan the best and arguably his only chance of becoming a world champion again, because he’s not going to stand a chance if he faces champions Errol Spence, Keith Thurman or Terence Crawford in my opinion. Those fighters would go into a feeding frenzy if a hors d’oeuvres like Khan were thrown into the ring with one of them. It wouldn’t be pretty. Those guys would likely rip Khan to shreds in destroying him in four rounds or less. Khan’s only chance of winning a world title in my estimation is against the soon to be 40-year-old Pacquiao, but that depends on what kind of shape the Filipino star is in for the fight. Like I said, if Pacquiao comes into the Khan fight looking like he just climbed out of a time machine from 2009, then it’s going to be a massacre for the Filipino star. The muscular Pacquiao that beat Matthysse would make easy work of Khan. It wouldn’t be a fair fight if Pacquiao were to fight Khan in that kind of condition.
Khan needs to keep his focus on his September 8 opponent Samuel Vargas (29-3-2, 14 KOs), who he’ll be facing at the Arena Birmingham in Birmingham, UK. Khan is supposed to make easy work of the 29-year-old Vargas, who is coming off of a lackluster 10 round draw against little known Maurco Godoy last June. Vargas has been blown out in the past by Danny Garcia and Errol Spence Jr. Khan should win this fight, but you can’t know for sure due to his history of being knocked out badly. It doesn’t seem to matter sometimes whether Khan is fighting a good opponent or not. He still winds up getting hurt. Briedis Prescott knocked Khan out in the 1st round in 2008. Khan has also been hurt by Willie Limond, Michael Gomez, Marcos Maidana and Julio Diaz. In addition to losing to Prescott, Khan has suffered losses to Lamont Peterson, Danny Garcia and Saul Canelo Alvarez. You can argue that Khan deserved a loss to Julio Diaz in 2013, but the judges gave him a highly controversial 12 round unanimous. The Khan vs. Diaz fight took place in Sheffield, England. Boxing News 24 had Diaz winning that fight.