Pacquiao claims Khan’s team prevented fight from happening, Khan responds

Timothy Bradley was not the first option.

Manny Pacquiao wanted to fight Bolton’s Amir Khan, and the fight was close to happening, but negotiations collapsed.

The pair had been in talks as early as November, but Pacquiao ended up selecting WBO World welterweight champion Timothy Bradley for a third clash instead.

There were a couple of reasons, well, many reasons why Pacquiao-Khan failed to happen.

First and foremost, last October, Khan went on to say that he was backing out of negotiations because Pacquiao and his team refused to sign the contract.

It was unfortunate because there was no such contract to sign.

Secondly, in November, Daily Mail’s Jeff Powell released a false story that Khan had landed the fight.

He had not.

However, with much patience, both sides tried to get the fight finalized despite the multiple derailments.

Ultimately, according to Pacquiao, Khan’s representatives prevented the bout from happening.

“Before this fight with Timothy Bradley, we were negotiating and trying to fix and get it done, this fight with Amir, but it didn’t work out,” Pacquiao told Sky Sports.

“There were a lot of middle men – in negotiations – a lot of representatives from him and that is the reason.”

Of course, there are two sides to every story.

“Manny and middle men? My team met Bob Arum in London, also spoke to Michael Koncz [Pacquiao’s advisor] we agreed on all terms, and they said Manny will decide to fight either me or [Terence] Crawford. The fight with me could have been in the UAE or Vegas,” Khan said via Twitter.

“We were waiting to see who he picks, and he decided to fight Bradley again don’t blame me or my team as there was no middle men, for whatever reason, they never wanted to fight.”

The 29-year-old mentioned the UAE as a potential location for the fight, which would have given Khan home-ring advantage.

Freddie Roach, Pacquiao’s trainer, revealed last week that WBO super-lightweight champion, Terence Crawford, turned down the fight with the Filipino, which left even fewer options than before.

– Ryan O’Hara / @OHaraSports