KUALA LUMPUR – From Australia to Malaysia to, hopefully, London.
If Manny Pacquiao's longtime strength and conditioning coach Justine Fortune has his way, he’d like to see the newly crowned World Boxing Association (WBA) welterweight champion face former world title-holder Amir Khan before an expected overflow crowd at Wembley Stadium.
Fortune expects the fight between the former sparring partners to attracted thousands of boxing fans from across England and perhaps, millions more on pay-per-view.
“If I had my way, I don’t know, (Amir) Khan in London. If I had my way, Pacquiao at Wembley Stadium, 100,000 people (will be there),” said Fortune as he tried to envision the enormity of such a match-up.
Pacquiao added up another world title to his name on Sunday when he knocked down Lucas Matthysse three times on the way to a dominant seventh-round stoppage at the Axiata Arena here.
Khan, 31, of course, is the former unified world light-welterweight champion from Bolton, Greater Manchester of Pakistani descent. He once served as Pacquiao’s sparring partner during the time he trained under Freddie Roach.
Fortune said boxing is currently big in Britain, with heavyweight title holder Anthony Joshua the current toast of English fight fans.
“Englishmen are great fight fans and they love boxing,” Fortune pointed out.
“Pacquiao versus Amirk Khan in London? Whew!” he added. “Of course, it’s my way. It’s what I thought, you know.”
A fight between Pacquiao and Khan was in the planning stage last year and initially set in Dubai, only for negotiations with prospective financiers to fall through at the last minute.
Fortune has no doubt Pacquiao can pack Wembley Stadium, pointing to the record crowd of 51,025 fans at the Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, Australia last year when Horn pulled off an upset against the Filipino hero to wrest the World Boxing Organization (WBO) welterweight crown.
“The ‘come on’ is Pacquiao,”said Fortune. “You know, he brought in 52,000 in Brisbane. And that’s for Pacquiao, not Horn.”
A record crowd of 90,000 turned up at Wembley Stadium last year to watch Joshua score an 11th-round stoppage of Wladimir Klitschko in a title unification match.
Asked if Pacquiao would consider taking on the fight, Fortune said it’s all up to the 39-year-old Filipino senator.
“He’s smart enough to know where he should go, which way to go,” said the conditioning coach.
Pacquiao though, is considering fighting in the US again for his next bout, possibly before the year ends.
“I’m hoping because it’s been a long time,” said the eighth-time world division champion after beating Matthysse for his 60th career victory.
Fortune said the dethroned champion from Argentina was obviously not in the same level as Pacquiao.
“He got hit by Pacquiao. He was intimidated by it from the get go,” said Fortune, a former heavyweight fighter from Australia.
“When he got dropped, he’s a game guy, a good fighter, you know. He can punch, but Manny punches harder and faster,” he added.
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