Manny Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum has confirmed that talks between his Top Rank outfit and Amir Khan’s own promotional team – including the Brit’s lawyer Robert Davis – are underway for a 2016 fight between the two former Wild Card stablemates.
Arum stated last week that Pacquiao was due to have a scan in the Philippines on the shoulder he injured in May’s mega-clash with Floyd Mayweather, with the results due to be sent to Dr. Neal ElAttrache in the US – the man who performed the surgery on the Filipino star in the aftermath of the fight – however Pacquiao himself has been insistent for some weeks now that the shoulder is ‘fine,’ dubiously claiming he had been healed by the power of God as well as immersing the shoulder in saltwater while swimming in the sea.
There had been continuing rumours that Khan had traveled to the US to hold talks about a recently mooted clash with Siberian Rocky, Ruslan Provodnikov, although Arum claims that not to be the case and that the only thing on the agenda is whether they can make Pacquiao/Khan a reality for next year.
“I’m in the process of having negotiations with Amir Khan’s uncle and his lawyer, Robert Davis, and those negotiations are ongoing,” he said to UK newspaper the Sunday Telegraph.
“I know there was a report that Khan was coming here to make a deal with Ruslan Provodnikov, but he ensured me that was not the case.”
Khan last boxed in May, making far harder than expected work of the light-hitting Chris Algieri, and is targeting Pacquiao after a mega-money fight with the newly retired Floyd Mayweather failed to materialize despite his very public chasing of the opportunity.
“I’m not saying necessarily that the negotiations [with Khan] will be successful,” Arum continued, “although I believe that everybody is negotiating in good faith. While those negotiations are going on, I’m not going to discuss any other opponent for Manny Pacquiao.
“There is a possibility that it could happen in Dubai, but I think it’s more likely it will happen in Las Vegas,” he added, insisting that the first half of April will be the latest they look to make Pacquiao’s next in-ring outing, before he re-emerges himself in his burgeoning political career back home in the Philippines, some time in May 2016.
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