Plenty of boxing fans were disappointed to learn that Floyd Mayweather had opted to face the underwhelming Andre Berto for possibly his final fight. Plenty of boxers were disappointed, too, among them Gennady Golovkin and Amir Khan.
Well, Khan may get the next best thing, at least from a publicity and prize-money perspective: Manny Pacquiao. After losing a desultory contest to Mayweather in May, the Filipino boxer will not be fighting again this year, according his promoter, but he will in 2016, and the English welterweight could prove a suitable opponent.
Bob Arum, Pacquiao’s promoter, is on the verge of discussing just such a match, according to The Telegraph. Here is what Arum had to say to the British newspaper on Tuesday:
“This kid Amir Khan keeps shooting his mouth off about Manny Pacquiao. I can arrange for Khan to fight Pacquiao,” Arum told The Telegraph.
“Amir Khan has been begging Mayweather for a fight and now he can get a major fight,” Arum continued. “I’m not a hard guy to deal with. I’m not going to mess them around.”
Arum made it clear that he also didn’t think much of the Mayweather-Berto matchup. “That’s a farce,” he told The Telegraph. “Mayweather should have fought Khan next. It would have been an interesting fight.”
“One thing’s for sure, Pacquiao is not ducking Khan,” Arum added. “Pacquiao will fight him. I don’t know if Khan will fight Pacquiao, but it’s available.”
Arum said that Pacquiao is recovering well from shoulder injury, and that “there’s no question he’ll fight again.” Not surprisingly, Arum is confident that his man would emerge the winner, if the bout with Khan takes place.
“It’s a good fight,” Arum told The Telegraph. “Manny beats him, though, in my opinion. Manny is getting up in age, so you never know what’s going to happen. But I think he hits too hard for Khan.”
