Manny Pacquiao vs. Amir Khan Failed Because of Middlemen Interference
Amir Khan was one of the first names mentioned as Manny Pacquiao’s final opponent before the Filipino boxer retires. However, things didn’t really turn out as planned.
It came down to a choice between Khan, Terence Crawford and Timothy Bradley Jr. In the end, it was “Desert Storm” who stood out as Pacquiao’s final dance partner for April 9 in Las Vegas.
The reason behind the selection of Bradley was due to the financial angle. Pacquiao’s camp said that, of the three, Bradley proved to be the one who made sense as far as reeling in PPV buys.
However, before all that came out in the open, there were some who believed that Khan may not be tough enough to stand up to Pacquiao, singling out his lack of power on his punches and his suspect jaw.
Khan believed that he would be shun at that time because Pacquiao and company were more obsessed of arranging a rematch between the Filipino fighter and Floyd Mayweather Jr. With that in mind, Khan redirected his focus elsewhere, believing he would be shunned for the second time in a span of five to six months.
Though it is academic to look back and see why the Khan vs. Pacquiao failed, more revelations were brought forth no less by the boxer-lawmaker himself.
In an interview with Sky Sports, Pacquiao said that there were too many involved in negotiations.
"There were a lot of middle men - in negotiations - a lot of representatives from him and that is the reason," Pacquiao said.
Upon hearing those words from Pacquiao, Khan responded to the "middle men" comments via Twitter.
“Don’t blame me or my team as there was no middle men, for whatever reason they never wanted to fight me. Freddie said HBO didn’t want the fight, now Manny saying my Middle men prevented the fight. Make up you mind guys,” Khan said via Behind The Gloves.
Before that “middle men” issue came out, Khan was hit for his impatience and knack for getting himself into trouble. It happened against Mayweather last year.
Khan was told to stay silent at that time as both camps were negotiating. However, the British southpaw continued to talk and, eventually, cost him his chance at Mayweather who decided to fight Andre Berto instead.
Against Pacquiao, Khan showed some of that once again back in October. At that time, Khan showed his impatience once again when he accused the Filipino fighter of stalling talks via ESPN.
As it turned out in the end, Khan would be eventually shunned due to financial considerations. However, as mentioned earlier, debating about it is senseless because the April 9 last dance of Pacquiao has already been set.
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