Pacquiao Tweets He’s Negotiating With Khan
By: Sean Crose
“My team and I are in negotiations with Amir Khan for our next fight. Further announcement coming soon. #TeamPacquiao”
So tweeted Manny Pacquiao this evening , adding intrigue to what has already been a series of statements from a variety of people regarding a Pacquiao-Khan bout over the past several days. If there’s one certainty, however, is that Pacquiao-Khan would be a good match. And yeah, people would probably tune in. No, it wouldn’t bring in anything close to a million pay per view buys, but it would certainly generate some genuine interest.
Both men, after all, are fast. Exceedingly so. There’s something else at play here, though. Should they meet at the 147 pound limit, the winner of a Manny-Amir bout might help decide who the king of the welterweight division is. Seriously. It’s hard for me to see any of today’s top crop of welterweights besting Pacquiao, except maybe for Kell Brook, Errol Spence Jr…or perhaps Khan himself. Sure, Khan lost to Garcia a while back, but I think he could take Garcia in a rematch. What’s more, I feel Pacquiao would take Garcia to school. Same with Keith Thurman (except perhaps to a lesser extent than Garcia).
What people tend to forget is that Khan is an exceedingly good fighter. Yes, he has a devastatingly poor chin. We know that. You have to hit the guy, though, in order to best him. Let’s keep in mind what he was doing to Canelo Alvarez before the far bigger Canelo dusted him last year. Allow me to take things a step further: I feel Floyd Mayweather may well have avoided Khan. Believe it. It’s hard for me to see how facing Marcos Maidana made Floyd more money a few years back than a throwdown with Khan would have.
I digress, however. The truth remains that an aging Pacquiao is still a dominant Pacquiao. The man needs quality opponents, however. And Khan is certainly that. The problem, of course, is that people feel Khan is arrogant and delusional, that he truly believes he’s on par with Manny and Floyd when it comes to prestige. He’s not, and the image he’s presenting – intentionally or not – is hurting his brand in the eyes of fans. There’s something else at play here, too, though, and that’s the fact that most might want to see Manny face the likes of Bud Crawford rather than Khan. People think Manny is cherry picking at this point and Khan’s less than stellar resume these past few years may keep people from altering that opinion.
Still, this would be some kind of match, between two lightning fast, exciting pros. Indeed, I’ll go right out and say Pacquiao-Khan would make for a top level, regular broadcast HBO fight. Unfortunately, however, it would most likely appear on PPV.