Amir Khan vs Manny Pacquiao world title fight all set for April 23rd
Three-time boxing World Champion Amir Khan and 11 time World Champion Manny Pacquiao have inked the paperwork for their welterweight division world title fight to be held on the 23rd of April.
This is what the super fight boxing fans across the globe are waiting for based on a poll conducted by Manny Pacquiao on the 12th of February. Of the 45K respondents that participated, almost 50% chose Amir King Khan as the opponent they want to see in the ring with Manny, while Terence Crawford and Kell Brook each got 20% of the votes.
“My natural weight division is welter and I feel this is the right time for a fight with Manny,” said Khan. “I have won the world championship thrice while Manny has won it eleven times – and that’s a great achievement. I'm 30 years old and Manny is 37, and we have trained together in the past so we know each other’s skills quite well,” Khan told journalists after teams from both sides came to an agreement for the fight.
The date has been set as the 23rd of April and that leaves exactly eight weeks of prep-time for the world champions. The location is meant to be decided between UAE, USA, or UK within the next week or so.
Pacquiao and Khan are both in the top three in the world rankings in the welterweight division and both have had world titles in the past. This super fight is estimated to be valued at circa $100 million. Khan had jumped up two weight divisions to fight Canelo Alvarez in 2016, which sold a record number of PPVs (pay per views) for the fight held on May 7th attended by over 13K people at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.