Pacquiao, Khan Likely Envision Win By KO, Says Shields

By Edward Chaykovsky

Veteran trainer Ronnie Shields really likes the welterweight matchup between former champion Manny Pacquiao and Amir Khan.

The fight is being discussed between Pacquiao's promoter, Bob Arum of Top Rank, and key members of Khan's team.

Both sides are looking to make this fight for early 2016.

The two fighters had trained side by side for several years when they were both trained by Freddie Roach at the Wild Card Gym in Hollywood, California. Khan left Roach in 2012 and hired Vigil Hunter. 

During their years at the Wild Card, the two boxers sparred with each other quite often. There are different stories as to what took place in these sparring sessions.

Because of their sparring sessions, both fighters know each other very well and there are probably weaknesses that each fighter believes they are capable of exploiting in the ring.

"I think it’s a good fight. It’s a good fight because Pacquiao knows Amir Khan. I know the guys were training together and you hear so many different stories out there, but only those guys really know what happened. I think Manny Pacquiao, with his style and with the power that he possesses, I think he really feels he can probably hurt Amir, maybe even knock him out," Shields told On The Ropes Boxing Radio.

"On the other hand, Amir probably feels the same way, he probably feels Manny is the older guy, he’s slipping. You just gotta look at his last couple of fights and you can see he’s not the same Manny Pacquiao of old. He’s slipping a little bit because of his age. Amir probably thinks he can capitalize on that and with his power, he may feel he could do the same thing that Juan Manuel Marquez did, knock Manny Pacquiao out."