Bob Arum has spoken about the rejection of Amir Khan for the Manny Pacquiao bout – stating the reason for the Brit being snubbed is because HBO were not totally sold on the fight producing on their pay-per-view platform.
Pacquiao eventually picked Bradley for his next fight on April 9 at the MGM Grand with many questioning Khan being overseen once again for a major fight.
Arum told the Las Vegas Review Journal, as reported by Boxing Scene: ““What [HBO] said was how Amir Khan didn’t resonate with them at all.
“Yeah, he would do some pay-per-view business in England, but they didn’t think he was an attraction in the United States.”
The rejection would also stem from Arum’s refusal to do business with Al Haymon with the Top Rank CEO filing a $100 million lawsuit against Haymon earlier this year.
Khan uses the advisory services of Al Haymon and Haymon does not do business with HBO which would have been another stumbling block in making the fight.
Terence Crawford, the other fighter overlooked for the fight was not marketable enough for HBO, Arum went on to confirm.
“A lot of the writers thought Terence Crawford was the hottest candidate,” Arum said to the Las Vegas Review Journal, “but they [HBO] felt that Crawford wasn’t as marketable, because other than people in the boxing industry, people didn’t know Crawford well enough.”
– Oun Abbas Hussain / @ouney86
– Managing Editor for Behind the Gloves.
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