Amir Khan, the 28-year-old British welterweight superstar, has been angling for a fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. for months, but now that Mayweather has rebuffed Khan and selected the nondescript Andre Berto as his September 12 opponent, Khan may get an opportunity for a big-money mega-fight after all. Talks with Manny Pacquiao are reportedly set to open this weekend.
The Inquisitr reported less than two weeks ago that a 2016 bout between Pacquiao and Khan appeared to be in the works. Pacquiao’s promoter, Bob Arum, confirmed that a Pacquiao vs. Khan fight is his fighter’s priority for 2016, in an interview with Britain’s Daily Mail newspaper Tuesday, while at the same time blasting Mayweather’s treatment of Khan as “a farce.”
“This kid Amir Khan keeps shooting his mouth off about Manny Pacquiao. I can arrange for Khan to fight Pacquiao… Amir Khan has been begging Mayweather for a fight and now he can get a major fight.”
However, Arum added that even though Mayweather will fight one more time this year — a fight which Mayweather claims will be the last of his career — Pacquiao will sit out the remainder of 2015. In other words, Khan will have to wait until 2016 for his sought-after mega-fight, and for that matter, so will anyone else who aims to fight Pacquiao.
But Arum offered assurances that unlike Mayweather, Pacquiao would not back out of a fight against the speedy Khan, a former Olympic silver medalist.
“One thing’s for sure, Pacquiao is not ducking Khan,” Arum said. “Pacquiao will fight him. I don’t know if Khan will fight Pacquiao, but it’s available.”
The fight will likely take place somewhere in the Middle East, Arum said — most likely in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, after that country’s most populous city, Dubai, was ruled out.
The main reason for the delay would be the shoulder injury Pacquiao claimed following his May 2 loss to Mayweather — but Pacquiao says that the sore shoulder has miraculously healed and he didn’t even have to get any treatment for the injury.
“I’m fine. It’s God’s work… I never saw a doctor. I never did rehab. All I did was to swim in the sea as often as I could. The salt water healed my wound.”
According to the Philippine Star newspaper, Manny Pacquiao is also considering holding the fight against Amir Khan, if indeed it does happen, in Manila — the capital city of his home country, the Philippines. If neither a Middle East location or Manila works out, the fight would simply go to Las Vegas, Arum said.
[Images: Nigel Roddis / Al Bello / Getty Images]