Amir Khan gives his take on why the Manny Pacquiao fight fell apart after previously confirming it was a done deal.
Khan is currently still on the hunt for an opponent for his first fight since suffering a crushing defeat to Canelo Alvarez in May 2016.
Khan, to his credit, jumped up two entire weight classes to take on the much bigger Canelo.
Ultimately the Mexican boxing star closed the show in style. One of the great things about Khan however is his bounce back ability.
Throughout his career he’s suffered knockdowns and stoppage defeats only to come back and win big fights. Or at least be involved in exciting fights.
He’s always chased the big fights too. Hounding Mayweather for almost two years for it to never happen for example.
Speaking to ES News Khan went into detail on why the Pacquiao fight isn’t happening just yet:
“So basically me and Manny and our teams were speaking for like the last 6 weeks on making the fight happen. The fight didn’t happen because Bob Arum (Pacquiao’s promoter) said that the investors in Dubai or wherever, UAE, couldn’t put the money together and they needed more time. So what we decided was, look fine, we’ll go our own way. I wanted to fight Manny Pacquiao. It would have been a great fight. Manny is a great champion. We are friends but sometimes you have to put you’re friendship aside. It would have been a great fight but Bob obviously called it off. He didn’t really believe it. So I told my manager Al Haymon to find me another fight. So we are looking at fighting again in April or maybe May. In the meanwhile if the Manny Pacquiao fight ever happens – then it’s something we would take.”
As of the time of this in mid April it’s hard to see how Khan could box this month. There’s two weeks left in the month realistically.
Even a May date seems ambitious.
If it were to happen then one would imagine it will be a relatively low key warm up. It would not have the turnaround time needed to properly promote.
Lets hope he’s back in the ring soon though.
Say what you want about Khan. He’s always in exciting fights and has one of the biggest social media followings of any boxer out there internationally.
For the full interview check it out here on YouTube courtesy of ES News. Amir Khan gives his side:
