Pacquiao-Khan Reportedly Rescheduled for May 19th
By: Sean Crose
It appears that Manny Pacquiao’s April date to fight Amir Khan has been pushed back to May 19th. According to Yahoo’s Kevin Iole, Pacquiao’s money man, Michael Koncz, spoke with Pacquiao’s promoter, Top Rank’s Bob Arum, and the feisty octogenarian finally gave his blessing to a Manny-Amir throwdown – with the date rescheduled in order for there to be more time to promote the event.
Arum had at first wanted Pacquiao to face Australia’s Jeff Horn, perhaps in Horn’s homeland. Now, though, it looks like Arum is willing to go along with the desire of his star fighter, Pacquiao, who clearly wanted a more prestigious opponent for his next bout.
Pacquiao actually ran a poll recently to see who his fans wanted him to face. Khan won the poll, just like he had previously won a similar poll run by Floyd Mayweather. This time, however, Khan actually got the fight (Mayweather went on to face Marcos Maidana after Khan won his particular poll). The fact that many of the Khan votes came from the pay per view lucrative United States seems to have convinced team Pacquiao that the speedy and exciting Brit was the way to go. After some turbulence, Koncz now looks to have gotten the blessing from Arum he was looking for.
Although Pacquiao has clearly lived out his prime already, and Khan had lost in brutal fashion to Canelo Alvarez in his last fight, a Manny-Amir bout presents an intriguing matchup. Presumably a welterweight fight, it will be one of three major throwdowns in that division throughout the first half of 2017. Keith Thurman will face Danny Garcia in a title unifer this week, while Khan’s fellow Brit, Kell Brook, will be facing American wunderkind Errol Spence Jr in a IBF title bout the day after Pacquiao and Khan are supposed to fight.
The Pacquiao-Khan fight looks to be taking place in the United Arab Emirates. That means the event will officially be on the 20th of that country’s calendar, but on the 19th in the United States.
Although both Pacquiao and Khan are top fighters, there’s no guarantee the bout will be a huge success as far as pay per view buys go. The major Alvarez-Julio Caesar Chavez Jr match will be aired on pay per view a few weeks earlier. What’s more, Pacquiao hasn’t come close lately to breaking the records that he did when he faced Floyd Mayweather on pay per view back in 2015.