By Edward Chaykovsky

British star Amir Khan (31-3, 19KOs) sees a heavy upside to facing eight division world champion Manny Pacquiao (57-6-2, 38KOs).

Besides the magnitude of the event and the monetary gains, Khan believes a dominating victory could catapult him to take over Floyd Mayweather's current top position in the pound-for-pound rankings.

Both Khan and Pacquiao are interested in the fight. Pacquiao's promoter, Bob Arum of Top Rank, would like to stage it next year.

The two fighters used to train side by side for several years when both of them were trained by Freddie Roach at the Wild Card Gym in Hollywood, California. Khan left in 2012 and started working with Virgil Hunter.

"I am very interested in a fight with Manny Pacquiao," Khan told Sporting News. "Obviously he’s ranked No. 2 in the world with big names. I feel like I should be fighting big names. I’d love to fight Manny Pacquiao and obviously someone has to take that position from Floyd Mayweather."

As far as Mayweather, Khan has been passed over three times - twice in favor of Marcos Maidana, who Khan defeated in the past. Once Mayweather passed him over for Maidana, Khan knew it was going to be an uphill battle to get a shot at Mayweather.

"I remember the time he picked Maidana over me even though I won the votes on the internet and he still didn’t pick me," Khan said. "At the moment, from everything I see and everything fight fans should realize is that Floyd is a liar. First when he said I’m going to let the fans pick who I fight, he didn’t what he said he was going to do because the fight fans voted and they all voted Amir Khan. And he still picked Maidana, someone who I’ve already beaten, put down and gave him a beating and beat him in a better style that Floyd Mayweather beat him."