Manny Pacquiao To Fight Amir Khan Next, Not Floyd Mayweather?

Manny Pacquiao To Fight Amir Khan Next, Not Floyd Mayweather

Manny Pacquiao surprised a lot of people when he defeated Keith Thurman to win the WBA welterweight championship last month.

The question on the minds of fans everywhere ever since then has been: who’s next?

Pacquiao, 40, has been linked to multiple fighters for his next bout. Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Thurman have been among the names mentioned for a proposed end-of-year match featuring the Filipino superstar, but one new interesting name has also popped up: Amir Khan.

Khan, 32, has indicated to reporters that a fight against Pacquiao is very much in the cards.

“The next fight is going to be back in Saudi Arabia, it is going to be in Riyadh this time and it is going to be on 8 November,” Khan told the media. “Hopefully it could be the Manny Pacquiao fight, we have both signed and the fight is done and hopefully he gets past his fight on the weekend then we go and do that fight.

“If not there will be other back-up plans but we wish Manny Pacquiao all the very best for this weekend’s fight.”

Eight or nine years ago, a bout between Pacquiao and Khan could have generated some real interest. At the time, Khan was still a promising young boxer. Then losses to Lamont Peterson, Danny Garcia, Canelo Alvarez and Terrence Crawford took some shine off what was once a very bright star.

Nevertheless, a case can be made that Khan only loses to the best – so maybe that is justification enough to pair him up with Pacquiao.

If a bout between Pacquiao and Mayweather does not come together, it would not be all that shocking to see Pacquiao and Khan finally fight for a big payday.

Carlos Garcia

A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.