According to the recently retired Amir Khan, he has been offered, via his former trainer Freddie Roach, an exhibition, “or even a proper fight” with Manny Pacquiao. For years, Khan chased both a fight with his former spar-mate Pac Man and rival pound-for-pound king at the time Floyd Mayweather. To no avail. Now, cool and no longer interested in chasing anyone, Khan says he laughed when word of the offer to box Pacquiao reached him.
Khan spoke with IFL TV, and he said the offer from Roach was received by a friend of his via a phone call.
“I got a phone call about another one [fight] today. Well, I didn’t. A friend of mine got a phone call from Freddie Roach to say that, ‘listen, we want to get a fight now that Manny didn’t win the elections, let’s don an exhibition or maybe even a proper fight,’” Khan said. “They want to do it in the UK, [but] you know all the bullshit chasing Floyd Mayweather, chasing Manny Pacquiao – it wasn’t meant to be then and maybe it’s not meant to be now. So I’m not going to chase something. I heard it and kind of laughed about it.”
So has Roach dangled a carrot in front of Khan and has Khan refused to be pulled in? Or, as Khan also suggested, is the whole idea of his fighting Pacquiao, in any capacity, real fight or exhibition fight, “all b*****s?” Is Pacquiao, who turns 44 this December, having ideas of fighting again now that he has lost his bid to become president of his country? Who knows?
But would a Pacquiao return do big business if it did happen? Yes, it would. And a Pacquiao-Khan fight would of course be a big attraction here in the UK; either real or exhibition. I wonder of Roach really did reach out, and if he was 100 percent genuine with his offer if he did make it. Don’t rule out both Pacquiao and Khan fighting again. Boxing really is the toughest drug to give up.