While there’s still time to make the fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao happen, we’ve been down this road before, and it’s not going to surprise anyone if nothing happens eventually, which is why Amir Khan, who is hoping for a shot at both boxers, is waiting on the sidelines for things to fall apart.
All the indications suggest that Pacquiao and his crew have agreed to everything demanded of them. Of course, with the pressure on Mayweather, he has nothing to do but make personal attacks at Pacquiao for not having any say in the deal, and this all being a Bob Arum production, and that they’re not close to making the fight happen. But Mayweather works in mysterious ways. He has a promotional company under his name, but as it’s been revealed before, it’s usually someone else doing all the work and the decisions as well.
Khan has done an excellent job over the last two years of bouncing back from rough losses to Lamont Peterson and Danny Garcia. He has won four fights in a row, has a title belt again and has done quite well in Welterweight, coming off a very convincing win over Devon Alexander in December. He wants to have the big money fight he was on course for a long time ago. First he tried to get Mayweather’s attention, but Mayweather ignored the fan’s vote and chose someone else. Now Khan is waiting for Pacquiao, someone he used to spar with, to become available.
But Khan isn’t the only option waiting for Pacquiao and Arum to choose from if the Mayweather deal falls apart. According to Arum, if there’s no mega fight with Mayweather, Pacquiao will fight under the HBO banner on May 30 with a number of potential venues to choose from. Russian former junior welterweight titlist Ruslan Provodnikov and junior welterweight slugger Lucas Matthysse of Argentina are the considered options, but Khan is on top of the waiting list.