By Rick Reeno
Last year, British star Amir Khan (30-3, 19KOs) declared that he was a complete free agent with no contractual ties to Golden Boy Promotions or Showtime. Khan stated that his contract with Golden Boy, and Showtime, ran side by side and both had expired with last December's decision win over Devon Alexander at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Fast forward to a few days ago, Khan re-confirmed that position in an interview with Ben Thompson of Fighthype.com.
Golden Boy Promotions President Oscar De La Hoya told BoxingScene.com that he's recently spoken with both Amir and his father, Shah Khan - and both sides were on the same page with continuing their working relationship.
"I've been in contact with Shah, I've been in contact with Amir. We would be involved with Amir Khan, because we've proven to him what kind of promoters we are, and he loves working with us and we love working with him," De La Hoya told BoxingScene.com.
Khan is now being mentioned a possible candidate to face Manny Pacquiao. Top Rank's CEO Bob Arum, who promotes Pacquiao, has mentioned a tentative date of May 30th for a Pacquiao-Khan encounter - if Arum is unable to lock down a deal for Pacquiao to face Floyd Mayweather Jr. on May 2.
Khan still works closely with adviser/manager Al Haymon. De La Hoya's company recently reached an undisclosed financial agreement with Haymon, where the influential manager walked away with an army of fighters who were being promoted by Golden Boy, but those fighters were not contractually tied to Golden Boy.
De La Hoya has no problem working with Haymon to make a Pacquiao-Khan fight happen.
"As a promoter the chain of command would have me dealing with Bob and then obviously taking it to Haymon," De La Hoya said.
De La Hoya believes a fight with Pacquiao will be easier to make than a fight between Khan and Mayweather, who last month expressed little to no interest in facing Khan in May. This would mark the second consecutive year where Khan was in line to face Mayweather and the undefeated champion was exploring other avenues.
"Amir Khan once again was left without his dancing partner, Floyd Mayweather, who promised him a fight two years ago," De La Hoya said.
Stephen Espinoza, the head of Showtime Sports, was unable to comment on the details of his network's contractual situation with Khan, but he expects to continue working with the British fighter in the future.
Espinoza's position is likely strengthened by the fact that network rival HBO does absolutely no business with Haymon. However, Haymon recently announced television deals with both NBC and Spike TV. Whether or not he positions Khan on either network is a mystery at the moment.
"We don't comment publicly on our deals with fighters and promoters. But I can say in general that we hope to be, and expect to be, in business with Amir Khan for a long time," Espinoza told BoxingScene.com.
