Manny Pacquiao and Amir Khan (Photo : Twitter)
Injuries and negotiations are part of a boxer's career. Amir Khan and Manny Pacquiao are no exceptions.
Manny Pacquiao is recovering from a shoulder injury that he sustained in the Mayweather fight but he already wants to make his return to the ring. Bob Arum talked to Las Vegas Review Journal about his return.
"He's doing a million things right now," Arum said. "But I'm not going to make a fight for him until he sees (Dr. Neal) ElAttrache. ElAttrache said he won't clear him until there's an MRI."
The 8-division champion will comply with the conditions, getting the MRI in his the Philippines and sending the results to the surgeon who performed the operation on his shoulder.
"We're looking at the first 3½ months of the year," Arum bared the possible venue. "We played around with having Manny fight in the Mideast. But if you do a fight in the Mideast, you lose half the pay per view. And the people we were talking to couldn't guarantee the live gate would make up for the loss on the pay per view, so it's not going to happen there."
That's good news for Las Vegas but the schedule would be affected."We'll look to do it in the States. But you have to be careful with the date. You don't want to go head-to-head with the (NCAA basketball) Final Four, so maybe it's in late February or mid-April after the tournament."
The opponent is also another issue but Arum did say that "it's obvious Mayweather isn't in the picture."
One boxer pining to get on the top of Manny's fight list is Amir Khan. After being shunned by Floyd Mayweather all the way to retirement, Khan is setting his sights on the second biggest payday he could attain. The British boxer talked to Fight Hype about his intentions.
"A fight against Manny Pacquiao would be a great event and a fight I would really want," Khan said. "Al Haymon, who advices me and looks after my interests also, likes the fight and hopes the fight can be made. As always, he is working closely with me and the rest of the team to help make it happen. We are in negotiations with Manny's team to try to make the fight a reality."
Boxing News 24 believes Khan has decided to wait it out for the Pacman. "It would be smart for Khan to stay busy by fighting someone else to make sure he gets at least two fights in 2015 under his belt, but it looks like Khan isn't interested in taking any risks that could potentially run his chances for a career high payday fight against Pacquiao."
