By Terence Dooley
Amir Khan’s father, Shah Khan, has revealed that Amir was offered a fight with Manny Pacquiao earlier this year. Khan’s team decided to turn the fight down due to Amir’s lack of top-level experience.
Shah told The Bolton News that they were flattered to be considered but decided that Amir should wait for a while before facing Manny – who is the best fighter on the planet at the moment.
"We were offered the fight a few months ago but it is not an option at the moment,” claimed Shah. “Maybe in a couple of years it is something we would look at but not at this stage.”
Bob Arum confirmed that Amir had been offered the fight in the aftermath of Manny’s KO win over Ricky Hatton.
“Amir’s name was on the table, we offered him the fight, but his father, and his family felt it was too early in his career,” explained Bob. “Amir Khan has all the attributes of a great champion, and I think he’s going to be a superstar in the sport.”
Bob continued: “Okay, so he had a loss in his career, he made a mistake, but he looks great now. It was a great performance which won him the world title against Kotelnik, and you can only see him getting better. I can definitely see Amir and Manny meeting in the ring down the line.”
With Khan now holding the WBA light-welterweight title the fight does, indeed, seem likely down the line, there will have to be a change in the training set-up, though, as Khan and Manny are both trained by Freddie Roach. Money talks, however, and the training angle would add an interesting subplot to an alluring contest.
Please send news and views to neckodeemus@hotmail.co.uk
