General

Manny Pacquiao vs. Amir Khan? Really?

Sep 8, 2009, 8:40 PM UTC

The Rumbleâ†µis SportingNews.com’s new fight blog covering the worlds of boxing andâ†µMMA. Head over there and welcome Dave and his crew to the site.
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â†µTwo rumors swept the internet over the long weekend about Manny Pacquiao:
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â†µ1.â‡¥That if the Cotto fight hadn’t worked out, he might have fought Wild Card stablemate Amir Khan.
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â†µ2.â†µThat if he had ended up fighting Khan, he might have had his handsâ†µfull, because Khan was whuppin’ his ass around the ring back when theyâ†µsparred before the Pac/Hatton fight.
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â†µI confess that my response to both of these rumors is my most wincing, disbelieving… “ninja PUHLEEZE!”
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Recentlyâ†µin a comment right here at The Rumble, I made the case that Khan likelyâ†µwould beat Ricky Hatton at 140 pounds right now, and I stand by thatâ†µassessment. But I don’t think there is any commutative property to be gleaned from that statement - i.e. Pacquiao beat Hatton, Khan would beat Hatton, therefore Pacquiao/Khan is a good fight.
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â†µThat’s about as viable to me as, say, this equation - Michael Spinks beat Larry Holmes, Mike Tyson beat Larry Holmes, therefore Spinks/Tyson is a good fight.Bobâ†µArum has said that Khan’s team was offered a fall fight with Pacquiaoâ†µbefore the Cotto deal was finalized, and they rejected the offerâ†µbecause they thought it was too soon for Khan. Good for them, I say,â†µand though I can’t believe that Bob Arum really envisioned a Pac Man/Khan fight happening this year (or ever), it wouldn’t surprise me to learn that he actually had floated an offer to Khan’s team just to keep Cotto on his toes.
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â†µThisâ†µreport, however, that Khan was handling Pacquiao in sparring sessionsâ†µseems to me like a block of Swiss with a lot of holes. In this reportâ†µfrom boxingnews24.com,â†µwriter Manuel Perez goes so far as to say that “Pacquiao looked like aâ†µchild against Khan and was really getting his backside kicked in aâ†µroyal fashion.”
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â†µNow… though I never saw Pac spar with Khan myself, I was up in his camp for the Hatton fight doing a piece about 24/7 for the HBO website.â†µI interviewed a lot of people for that piece, heard a lot of eyewitnessâ†µaccounts of what had been going down at Pac’s camp. Never once did Iâ†µhear anyone mention the slightest word about Pacquiao getting bested byâ†µa sparring partner. In fact, I heard the exact opposite, that he’dâ†µlooked fantastic in sparring, that no one could touch him.
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â†µThere’sâ†µaccompanying video of Pac and Khan sparring at that Boxing News 24 linkâ†µabove, video that Perez cites as evidence for his case. If you watchâ†µit, I think you’ll draw the same conclusion that I did - that Pac, asâ†µfighters often do, was primarily working on his defense at the time.â†µHow often do you see Pacquiao doing the peekaboo? Like… never. He’sâ†µplaying a little keepaway from Khan, every now and then engaging him,â†µbut for the most part letting Khan get off first, looking for countersâ†µhere and there, no doubt practicing for what he imagined would be theâ†µrelentless attack of Hatton.
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â†µDrawing conclusions from a minuteâ†µor so of sparring is never wise. The idea of a Khan/Pacquiao matchupâ†µmay swirl around the airwaves for a while, although I can’t see it everâ†µhappening. Khan has absolutely no juice here in the States, and even ifâ†µPac could carry him in a Vegas fight as a B-side, I don’t see why he’dâ†µwant to. There are a slew of other interesting B-sides for him outâ†µthere, and most of them bring more to the table than Khan, and what’sâ†µmore, they’re not trained by Freddie Roach.
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â†µNevertheless, let’sâ†µjust pretend for a second that this fight could happen somewhere downâ†µthe road. Given what I’ve seen of Khan, I’d say he’d be lucky to lastâ†µfour rounds. And I think I’m being kind to him with that assessment.â†µSparring is one thing. But fighting… that’s quite another matterâ†µaltogether, especially when you’re fighting Manny Pacquiao.â†µ