Manny Pacquiao Fight Can Help Me Lure Floyd Mayweather, Says Amir Khan
Amir Khan just can’t let the idea of fighting Floyd Mayweather Jr. go. Indeed, the Bolton-born boxer has outlined a potential route for getting the American back in the ring following his recent retirement: beating Manny Pacquiao and becoming the world’s best pound-for-pound boxer.
It’s an ambitious plan from Khan, who told the Bolton News he feels a fight with Pacquiao is definitely on the cards, per Edward Chaykovsky of BoxingScene.com:
"I think Manny Pacquiao would be the priority because I don’t know how long he has got left in his career, I think he would be the first fight to take.
Manny P was probably number two pound-for-pound so by fighting him and beating him, it might get me to be the number one pound for pound fighter and then you get someone like Floyd Mayweather who might say I will come out of retirement and fight him—imagine that.
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Pacquiao is still recovering from a shoulder injury he picked up in the build-up to his fight against Mayweather in May, a bout in which the the Filipino suffered a unanimous-decision loss. As noted by Dan Rafael of ESPN, Bob Arum—Manny’s promoter—has confirmed Khan is an option once he returns:
It’d make for an intriguing fight. Khan is now trained by Virgil Hunter, but he and Pacquiao previously shared the same coach in Freddie Roach. In addition, the Brit is desperate to make that step up in class to become a truly elite fighter, while Manny will want to show he can still cut it at the very top level.
Roach reveals here that Pacquiao did actually put Khan on the floor in sparring and the Filipino would have too much power for his former stablemate:
But Khan has made some positive strides since then, beating Luis Collazo, Devon Alexander and Chris Algieri emphatically in his previous three outings. With Pacquiao showing a few signs of wear and tear at the age of 36, it’s certainly not beyond the realms of possibility that Khan could snatch a victory.
Whether that’d lure Mayweather out of retirement is another story. The American decided not to fight Khan in his last fight, with the Brit claiming the pound-for-pound king was scared of squaring off against him.
Instead, Floyd beat Andre Berto to go 49-0 for his career and was adamant he will be walking away from the sport for good, although few really believe him. However, even if he does return, Floyd Mayweather Sr. previously insisted Khan is “not going to get a penny if I've got something to do with that,” per Declan Taylor of the MailOnline.
Boxing Kingdom thinks it’s time for Khan to forget about squaring off against Mayweather and move on to new targets:
That seems like the best thing for Khan to do. Going up against Mayweather obviously would have represented an incredible opportunity for him, but it’s one that seems very unlikely at the moment. Still, there’s no harm in having ambitions of becoming the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world.
Beating Pacquiao would see Khan take a significant stride toward that landmark, and it’s a fight that seems feasible at this juncture. It’s a division that is packed with massive quality, too, giving Khan plenty to occupy himself with aside from Floyd in the years to come.
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