MANILA, Philippines - Payag si Top Rank chief Bob Arum na ilaban si Manny Pacquiao kay British star Amir Khan.
Ngunit hindi kaagad kakagatin ni Arum ang mga pahayag ni Khan na handa niyang sagupain si Pacquiao.
“I’m leery of statements like that because we, about a month ago, sent out feelers through somebody who’s connected with the Khans about whether he’d be interested in a Pacquiao fight,” sabi ni Arum.
“And we heard no-thing positive in return. So for the kid now to say, ‘Yeah, I’m ready to fight Pacquiao, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera’ – where does it come from? I mean, number one, is it possible to arrange for a Pacquiao fight? I don’t know what his contract states,” wika pa ng promoter.
Isa lamang si Khan sa mga pangalan na lumulutang na posibleng labanan ni Pacquiao, naka-schedule nang lumaban sa Nobyembre 23 sa Macau.
Maliban sa Olympic silver medalist, ang iba pang nasa listahan ay sina Chris Algier, Luis Abregu at Danny Garcia.
Sinabi ni Arum na pag-aaralan muna niya ang mga nakatakdang laban ni Khan bago siya ikunsidera para kay Pacquiao.
“We can’t sign anything for him to fight Pacquiao until we look at his contracts. For example, for all I know he might have a contract that says all his fights have to be on Showtime. I don’t know if that is true or not,” wika ni Arum.
“But when we reached out to him a month ago, we said, ‘We’re not interested in the amounts [specified in Khan’s contracts], but redact those numbers and send us the contract so we can see if we can even talk to you about a Pacquiao fight. And we got nothing in return,” dagdag pa nito.
Ilan sa mga panalo ni Khan, isang dating world lightweight champion, ay laban kina Marco Antonio Barrera, Pauli Malignaggi, Marcos Maidana at Zab Judah. Nadiskaril ang kanyang pagsikat matapos matalo kina Lamont Peterson at Garcia.
Matapos ito ay nagtala si Khan ng tatlong sunod na panalo, kasama ang pagdomina kay dating world titlist Luis Collazo noong Mayo.
Sina Pacquiao at Floyd Mayweather, Jr. ang kanyang gustong labanan.