Arum and Golden Boy’s Oscar De La Hoya have recently decided to rekindle their relationship after a prolonged spell in the wilderness and should now be able to make some exciting match-ups between Top Rank and GBP fighters.
Pacquiao returned to his formidable best last month with a dominant win over Timothy Bradley and is thought to be eyeing a return to action in November to defend his reclaimed WBO welterweight title.
A former training partner of Pacquiao, ex-light-welterweight king Khan made an impressive start to his career at 147lbs by dropping and out-pointing Luis Collazo in Las Vegas on May 3 and is also linked to a November outing.
When asked on Saturday if the two may be pitted against each other at some point, Arum stated that the only thing standing in the way of negotiations was Khan’s recent partnering with big-fight figurehead Al Haymon.
“Khan fighting Pacquiao is off the table as he is not with Oscar now, but with Haymon. If he goes back to Oscar then it is something we can talk about,” Arum told World Boxing News.
A battle between the ex-camp mates certainly would whet the appetite of the fans if it came off as the two top-rated boxers possess blistering speed in abundance and would make for an intriguing encounter. Pay-per-view numbers would have the potential to take Pacquiao back over the one million mark after he drew almost 800,000 for his rematch triumph over Bradley.
Right now, and more realistically for the Filipino is a fifth instalment with Mexican nemesis Juan Manuel Marquez, who has to come through Mike Alvarado on May 17 to strike up discussions for a multi-million dollar bout.
Sealing a clash with Pacquiao though would be a real coup for Khan after he missed out on a blockbuster headliner against Floyd Mayweather Jr. in May. There is een talk of the Mayweather and Khan finally sharing a ring in the spring of 2015, but a Pacquiao offering in the meantime could prove too hard to turn down for the Briton.
With Arum addressing fights like Pacquiao v Khan, it sends a strong signal to the boxing fraternity that Top Rank and Golden Boy working together is a huge step forward, with their first project on course to be announced in the near future.
Follow on Twitter @PhilDJay for tweets of upcoming news on WBN
