Manny Pacquiao’s promoter shoots down talk of Amir Khan fight

Reports that Amir Khan has landed the ultimate fight of his career against Manny Pacquiao on 20 May met with predictable derision from the Filipino’s promoter, Bob Arum, on Tuesday, who called them “total and complete bullshit’’. Which is not to say it will not happen.

“The Amir Khan story has come out of nowhere,” Arum told the Courier Mail in Brisbane, home town of the boxer and former schoolteacher, Jeff Horn, who has signed a contract to fight Pacquiao on 23 April.

However Mike Koncz, Pacquiao’s legal advisor, said on Tuesday: “I’d prefer not to make any comments right now, because there are a lot of undecided issues. Hopefully by mid-week next week we’ll have a final on everything.

“All I’m going to do is fuel speculation in the media and I don’t want to do that. Once we have confirmed 100% the venue and the arena and who the opponent is we’ll make an announcement. But, until then, I think it’s detrimental to all negotiations taking place and it’s not fair to the candidates we are looking to fight.”

Khan is expected to announce his next opponent in the next 10 days for an April fight in the United States, and it is highly unlikely to be Pacquiao, who has tax issues there.

A good showing in that fight would set down a marker for Khan to meet the winner of the 4 March bout between Keith Thurman and Danny Garcia - especially if the latter wins, as it was the Philadelphian who ripped the light-welterweight title away from Khan in 2012 before they both moved up a division. Eddie Hearn, hugely frustrated when Khan turned down Kell Brook, described as “incorrect” the latest rumours of a Khan-Pacquiao fight.

Arum, who has been with Pacquiao almost since his arrival at Freddie Roach’s Wild Card gym in Los Angeles in 2001, admitted final details of the Horn fight, originally scheduled for the Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, were “up in the air”, and said his fighter was looking for bigger money in the United Arab Emirates.

The Queensland Government, Brisbane City Council and Suncorp Stadium had agreed to supplement Pacquiao’s purse of A$7m (£4.3m) in an extravaganza promoted by the New Zealand-based Duco Events that is being sold as the biggest event in Australian boxing history. Similar hype is attached to the possibility of a Khan-Pacquiao fight in the UK.

However, Pacquiao complicated matters last week when he asked his Twitter followers to choose his next opponent. Very few mentioned Horn. Pacquiao then expressed a wish to fight in either Abu Dhabi or Dubai, venues previously mentioned many times in connection with his fights without a deal ever being struck.

“What’s happening is that Manny is talking to these people in Dubai who have offered him an insane amount of money,’’ Arum said. “Whether it is real or not real — he is determined to explore it to see if it has any validity. That’s all I can say.’’

Complicating matters further, Koncz insists that Horn, “is still in the mix”, though he told the Gulf News he wanted to apologise to, “the Australian Government and the fans there for the last-minute change in plans”.

Speculation about Khan fighting Pacquiao in the UK on 20 May arises because there are openings then at the Macron Stadium in Khan’s home town, Bolton, and the Manchester Arena.

But so far, there are three fighters, no settled venue, two dates, two conflicting agents talking on behalf of Pacquiao, unnamed sources pushing Khan’s bid and much confusion. The other consideration to take into account is the quality of the fight itself.

Horn is a 29-year-old welterweight who has won all his 16 fights but in limited company – the last of them a sixth-round stoppage of well-travelled South African veteran Ali Funeka on the Joe Parker undercard in Auckland before Christmas – and does not represent a great threat to a Hall of Fame legend who has won world titles in eight divisions.

Khan, for all his vulnerabilities (his defeat by Saul ‘Canelo’ Álvarez, was one of the most brutal knockouts of 2016), still has the speed to embarrass the 38-year-old Pacquiao, with whom he trained in Los Angeles for several years before falling out with Roach.