Arum to study feasibility of Pacquiao-Khan

MANILA, Philippines – Top Rank chief Bob Arum welcomes the prospect of pitting Manny Pacquiao with British star Amir Khan, but the promoter isn’t quick to pull the trigger.

Khan has been vocal about his desire to face Pacquiao, his former sparring partner, hoping the fighting congressman selects him for his return bout in November.

But Arum still has reservations about the likelihood of the fight getting made, telling boxingscene.com’s Keith Idec that he’ll “absolutely investigate it” first.

"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," Arum said.

"And we heard nothing 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," the promoter continued.

Khan is just one of the few names being floated to take on Pacquiao, who is scheduled to return to the ring on Nov. 23 in Macau. The Olympic silver medalist joins Chris Algier, Luis Abregu and Danny Garcia in the list of fighters who want a shot at the boxing icon.

Arum, however, plans to study Khan’s existing commitments first before considering him for 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,” he explained, adding he has contacted Khan before regarding the matter.

“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," Arum further said.

Khan, a former champion at lightweight, has scored wins over Marco Antonio Barrera, Pauli Malignaggi, Marcos Maidana and Zab Judah. His career stalled after back-to-back losses to Lamont Peterson and Garcia, the latter of which was a knockout setback.

But Khan has since bounced back with three straight wins, including a dominant decision victory over former titlist Luis Collazo last May. He now seeks a major bout, particularly one against either Floyd Mayweather or Pacquiao.

"I think he wants the fight. He wants a [big] fight. He wants a fight with Mayweather. He wants a fight with Pacquiao. He wants a fight which is going to raise his image and get him some decent money. But wanting it and going about it the right way are two different things," Arum ended.